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Irish school-book publishers have rejected claims made by Fine Gael education spokesman Brian Hayes that they are ripping off parents. Hayes accused publishers of "money-making rackets" and said that parents were being "ripped off".
The political party compared the price lists for nine school-book publishing companies for the upcoming academic year with the prices for the same books last year. "It's clear that across the board price rises have been put in place by some school-book publishers." said Hayes. "Other publishers are behaving responsibly by freezing or even slightly lowering prices from last year."
Publishers have responded by rejecting some of Hayes' figures, reported the Irish Independent; Hayes stood by them, although he conceded that he was incorrect in claiming that school books attract 21% VAT.
Anthony Murray, educational publisher at Gill & Macmillan, denied the claims: "Some of our prices have been frozen, some have decreased and there have been no price increases of any kind since January 2009," He said. "There is further glaring factual error in the report in that there is no VAT of 21% on school books".
Hayes said publisher Fallons had increased prices for its primary school range by 7%, but the company said only four of its 250 titles saw that level of increase, because of significant extra interactive support material. The publisher said its prices went up 2% across the primary school range, with over 100 titles remaining at last year's prices.
The company sought an amendment of Hayes' original release, but yesterday (26th August) he refused to do so.