Junior Education Minister Sean Haughey’s announcement that school bus charges are to go up in September represents the first in a new batch of stealth charges, according to north Kilkenny Cllr Maurice Shortall.
Cllr Shortall said Minister Haughey’s announcement this week meant that charges could increase by more than 20 per cent for some families.
“Eligible junior cycle students will have to pay €56 per term, up from €46, while eligible senior cycle students will now have to pay €78 a term, up from €71,” he said.
“It would seem that we will have to become accustomed to increases in charges on public services, €10 here, €20 there, as the government try to regain control of the exchequer spending by putting further pressure on families who are already coming under increasing financial strain.
“When Taoiseach Brian Cowen outlined the ‘reallocation’ of government resources two weeks ago, he tried to give some kind of impression that health and education would be exempt from the cuts.
“Sadly this week we see that this is not the case, with the welfare of students and their families, giving way to short term book-keeping considerations,” the Castlecomer representative concluded.
