There will be an investment worth nearly €2 million in phone pouches for secondary school students each year, the Dáil has heard.
READ MORE: Education Minister Norma Foley defends 'scandalous' €9m budget allocation for phone pouchesIn the Dáil on Wednesday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald suggested that her party had obtained information through a Freedom of Information request stating that there would also be “a cost of almost €2 million for these pouches annually”.
“Option two, phones handed in at a central point. Cost to the public purse, zero euros. Option three, placement in student lockers. Cost to the public, zero euros beyond the cost of the locker. Taoiseach Simon Harris argued that teachers and students had welcomed the investment, which he suggested amounted to €20 per child.