Books for Primary school children will be provided free of charge from September 2023.
The measure will be announced in the Budget tomorrow with an estimated cost of €47M.
In addition funding will be approved to hire more primary school teachers to bring the staff pupil ratio to 1 teacher for every 23 students.
It will be the first time in its history that the State has assumed responsibility for the cost of schoolbooks and will bring Ireland into line with countries around the world.
It is estimated that primary school books cost €110 per child per annum. The measure is intended to be a permanent one.
