Greens call emergency education meeting

The Green Party has called for an emergency meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education in an attempt to find a resolution to the school water charges controversy.

Schools say they are to be charged up to €10,000 in local authority water charges, something they say they cannot afford.

Earlier this week the Minister for Education Mary Hanafin said the schools must pay.

The Green's Education spokesperson Paul Gogarty has now urged the Departments of Education, Environment and Finance to work together to find a solution.

He says it needs to be clarified once and for all whether EU rules allow schools to be excluded from paying for water.