Irish Examiner view: Backing 'every child a reader' campaign

A €2.2m annual investment in the primary school library fund was axed by Fianna Fáil in 2008. It was a rotten idea then and remains so today

Schoolchildren, some from disadvantaged backgrounds, and some of whom are raised in environments where reading for pleasure is a rarity, have reduced access to new books. File picture

Back in the bleak days of the last global financial crisis, 13 years ago in case you have forgotten, such is the regularity that they now descend upon us, one of the most churlish and mean-spirited cost-saving measures in the government response was tucked away in the small print of the 2009 budget.

A €2.2m annual investment in the primary school library fund, used to provide new books for youngsters, was axed in its entirety that October.