Achill based Fianna Fáil councillor Paul McNamara has called for the introduction of a standard start date for all schools after the summer holidays are over. "It should be the first Monday in September, we have schools going back yesterday then today, and some not back until Tuesday next week. This has a knock on effect on places like Achill where we rely on tourisim. I was talking to people last week who were heading home because they had children going back to school this week. That's a whole week that the tourisim industry is losing out on because of schools starting on different dates."
McNamara also added: "We even have a situation here where one of the schools started back yesterday, but we the school transport system doesn't kick in until Monday, so their parents had to find ways to get children to school themselves rather than on the school bus."
He continued: "There are 183 days in the school year, there is plenty of scope for those days to be fulfilled during the term time, even if the schools all started on the first Monday in September, it's a simple thing to do this and would be a great benefit to everyone concerned."
