‘School costs like these really do bite’

VALERIE McDERMOTT and her husband Donal O’Carroll are an average middle-income couple.

Their older son Conor is about to start first class and his brother Eoin is aged just two, but already the looming cost of two children at school is a daunting prospect. Some of the basic bills they face for the school year ahead include:

* Shoes and runners (two pairs of each) — €120 .

* Books — €228.

* Shirts — €12.

* Trousers — €21.

* School jumper — €53.

* School contribution — €150.

These expenses alone come to over €700, before buying copybooks and stationery or before any notes come home for photocopying costs, school trips, sports days or other school expenses.

The €228 Ms McDermott has paid to the school for six-year-old Conor’s books also pays for a carton of milk every day and personal accident cover worth €7.50.

But it also covers participation in physical education and speech and drama, both elements of the primary curriculum. This appears to effectively be a further contribution on top of the €150 parents are asked to contribute for each child to help operate the school.

“I have no problem with the school, they have a very tight budget. But in a country that’s supposed to have a free education system, the headmaster shouldn’t have to be writing to parents looking for money,” said Ms McDermott.

The couple live in Killiney, Co Dublin, and have fairly well-paid jobs — Ms McDermott works in insurance and her husband in IT — but they felt the pinch when she took four weeks unpaid parental leave this summer.

“We’re lucky to have bought our house before marrying 11 years ago but we still have to budget for things carefully. As it stands, though we wouldn’t qualify for any back-to-school allowances or anything and it’s been a matter of picking up different school things each week,” she said.

“We have one car which is eight years old, we hardly ever go out socialising but school costs like these really do bite. It’s a lot of money when it’s coming out of your after-tax income.”

And, like thousands of other working families, childcare is another burden — the McDermotts pay €1,225 a month to keep Eoin in full-time day care and Conor for a few hours after school each day.