VAT  On E- Books Needs To Be Slashed – Deputy Seán Crowe

Sinn Féin Education Spokesperson Deputy Seán Crowe has called on the Government to reduce the 23% VAT rate on electronic school books so that the saving can be passed on directly to students and their parents.

The Dublin South West TD was supporting calls from the Irish Education Publishers’ Association (IEPA) who claim that the 23% rate means parents and schoolchildren are not getting the full benefit from e-books.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“The costs of school books rises as children pass through the education system, with parents being charged on average between €50-and 100 euros for books for a Junior Infants pupil and over €250 for a 1st year pupil. Another factor is  the high cost and constant changing of books used in the school curriclum systm   unless more and more schools implement a book rental scheme then many parents will continue to  struggle to meet payments for their children’s education.

“We also know that the volume and weight of schoolbooks has impacted negatively on the health of children  and  has become an increased   problem  in recent years for students  of all sizes and ages.. The  problems of their weight   has been aired by irish educators, parents groups and teachers representatives in  various Fora and education conferences   down through the years.

” The Minister Ruairi Quinn and the Department of Education needs to show  initiative and greater imagination when addressing the issue of  books  and e-books and their long term  impact on irish students .

“Over one third of Irish schools use an electronic version of a book which imposes an initially high cost on parents when paying for a table computer to read them on. This is supposed to be off-set through the use of e-books which are meant to be cheaper in the long-term with costs down to between 20% – 35%. However, if claims by the Irish Educational Publishers Association (IEPA) are correct, then the 23% VAT rate being charged on electronic books means any potential savings are being cancelled out.

“It is simply not good enough for Finance Minister Michael Noonan to rule out reducing the VAT on e-books by blaming EU laws which require all digitised publications to be treated as a supply of service. Electronic school books are essential to a child’s education and they should be exempt from the excessive  VAT rate of 23%.

“I fully support the IEPA in its call for a reduction in the VAT rate, Finance Minister Michael Noonan needs to wake to the negative impact this unfair tax is having on irish parents  and encourage the greater roll out of e -books in the Irish education system.”ENDS