The Government has been slammed for ‘sitting on its hands’ resulting in families picking up the tab for its lack of investment in education.
Sinn Féin‘s Galway West candidate Mairéad Farrell said that the cost of back to school expenses makes the summer months a particularly challenging time financially for many families.
She referenced a survey carried out by the Irish League of Credit Unions which revealed that 78% of parents were struggling financially with Back to School costs.
If that woeful statistic wasn’t enough, that same survey found that 36% of parents were falling in to debt due to back to school costs.
The local Sinn Féin activist lamented the situation where many parents, ‘who are already at the pin of their collar, are forced into sizable debt just so they can send their children to school’.Despite receiving little support, many families are forced to fork out €950 to get their children ready for primary school, and €1,400 to send them to secondary school.
She declared free education to be a ‘myth’ when you consider the above numbers.
Farrell underlined that the crippling back to school costs results in up to “two thirds of parents having to decide that a child can’t participate in some extracurricular activities so that they can cover costs, and a third of them won’t be able to afford school trips.
“A third of families fall into debt over this period, including 24% who go to moneylenders through sheer desperation, despite charging interests rates that are through the roof, putting families under even more financial pressure,” she said.
Farrell decried this as a symptom of the growing cost of living in the country with underfunded public services compelling citizens to ‘cough up more’.
She blamed the Government for sitting on their hands and letting families pick up the tab for their inadequate investment.
This is despite numerous recommendations from reports by Oireachtas Committees and Charities.
