School Year 2025/2026
New Free Schoolbooks Grant and Administration Support Grant:
- For pupils enrolled in junior cycle years in the 2025/2026 school year: €309 per pupil.
- For pupils enrolled in senior cycle years in the 2025/2026 school year: €142 per pupil.
- For pupils enrolled in senior cycle (5th & 6th year, including LCA 1&2) in the 2025/2026 school year: €295 per pupil.
An administration support grant will be provided. The Administration Support Grant is made up of two parts (core administration days and supplementary support days).
The core administration days may be used to employ a person to work for a specified number of days in advance of, or during, the 2025/26 school year to carry out administrative work on the scheme. The daily rate sanctioned by the Department for this work is €167.54, which includes holiday pay. The Department will provide an additional 11.15% to cover the employer PRSI cost.
The supplementary support days may be used to employ students/other individuals to help the school with the implementation of the scheme. Students/other individuals will be paid the current minimum wage appropriate to their age. Schools will be allocated funding of €13.50 per hour. For the purposes of the supplementary support days grant calculation, a day is taken to mean 7 hours.
Guidance on the scheme can be found here.
School Year 2024/2025
For the school year 2024/2025 this will be paid for the junior cycle students only
Introduction
The new Junior Cycle Schoolbooks Scheme provides free schoolbooks for all children and young people in Junior Cycle years in recognised post-primary schools in the free education scheme. This scheme includes all schoolbooks and core classroom resources.
This scheme was introduced in the 2024/2025 school year.
There are two new grants within this scheme.
- Junior Cycle Schoolbooks Scheme Grant
- Administration Support Grant
Administration Support Grant
The Department has put in place a grant payment for schools, for administrative support in the 2024/25 school year. This grant may be used to employ a person to work for a specified number of days in advance of, or during, the 2024/25 school year to carry out administrative work on the scheme. The daily rate sanctioned by the Department for this work is €160.62, which includes holiday pay. The Department will provide an additional 11.05% to cover the employer PRSI cost.
The payment to the individual must be put through the payroll and all the appropriate statutory deductions should be made to the payment. The individual must be registered on ROS immediately as an employee of the school.
The PRSI class for privately paid personnel will be the A Class. The Payroll computer system will calculate the correct PRSI once the correct PRSI Class is entered for each employee. However, a small number of employees are insurable at Class J, no matter how much they earn, such as employees aged 66 or over or people in subsidiary employment.
Where a post-primary school does not need to pay a person or persons for additional administrative support to implement the new scheme, the school may use the Administration Support Grant for other administrative purposes associated with the new Junior Cycle Schoolbooks Scheme, including but not limited to, the purchase of a tracking/barcode system or the purchase of storage cabinets.
The number of days allocated are based on the Junior Cycle enrolment size of the school and are as follows:
Resources
- Financial Guideline 32 – 2024/2025
- Financial Guideline 03 – 2024/2025
- Financial Guideline 24 – 2023/2024
- Info on Schoolbooks Scheme for Junior Cycle
Procurement Guidance
The Schools Procurement Unit (SPU) is the central support resource for providing guidance to schools on any procurement-related issue.