Parents will have to pay for children to use the toilet

A NATIONAL school that has seen water charges more than quadruple since the Government’s flat rate was introduced earlier this month has warned parents they will have to pay for their child to go to the toilet.

Last year, St Colmcille’s Boys National School in Swords, Co Dublin, which has 477 pupils, paid Fingal County Council a flat rate annual fee of €300 in water charges.

But school principal Jim Bennett said the Government’s new charge of €3 per pupil, aimed at reducing bills for cash-strapped schools, would have the opposite effect on St Colmcille’s.

It would mean that the school would have to pay €1,431 for 2007.

The school’s water costs are expected to increase to €1,669 this year when the charge is increased to €3.50 and to €1,908 in 2009 when the €4 charge is applied.

When the EU rule on water charges is applied in 2010 the school will have to pay a minimum annual charge of €5,000.

Up to now the school has relied on €12,000 in annual fundraising to pay for computers and other equipment.

“There is no doubt that the parents will have to pay for the increased water charges. I have already written to them warning them about this,” said Mr Bennett.

He regretted that schools like his were not given a chance to introduce water conservation measures in good time.

The county council has offered to carry out a range of water conservation measures in two schools in the area to show the savings that can be made as a result.

The schools will be chosen from a draw organised by the local authority on January 18.

Mr Bennett said schools should have been helped to make sensible conservation measures long before metering was introduced by the council last summer.

“We are looking at overhauling our water pipework after noticing that thousands of litres were being lost when the school was shut,” he pointed out.