Irish Examiner view: We need to cut the cost of ‘free’ education

The €116m that parents contributed over five years is but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to hidden costs of education

Parents responding to a survey for the Irish League of Credit Unions this summer said they expected to spend more than €1,600 per primary school-age child across the school year and €2,142 for each post-primary child. Picture: iStock

The €116m paid by parents in voluntary contributions to their children’s schools, as reported here yesterday, is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the hidden costs of our “free” education system.

Education correspondent Jess Casey detailed how, between September 2020 and June 2025, parents made voluntary contributions amounting to €116,609,799 to plug funding shortfalls in schools. More than two thirds of parents felt the payments were not actually voluntary.

But the contributions, voluntary or otherwise, are just one element of the costs that have crept into the system in recent decades.

The price of schoolbooks was a cause for complaint by generations of parents before the free books scheme was extended to all primary and secondary classes. That financial burden was replaced by the cost of laptops or other digital devices now required by many schools.

A survey by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission put the average cost of those devices at more than €560 for secondary school pupils.

Then there are school transport charges of €100 per child per year, uniforms and sports gear, lockers, classroom materials, and other non-optional outlays.

Parents responding to a survey for the Irish League of Credit Unions this summer said they expected to spend more than €1,600 per primary school-age child across the school year and €2,142 for each post-primary child. While expenditure included optional extras such as grinds and extra-curricular activities, most costs were ones about which parents have little real choice.

Against a backdrop of bills amounting to €1,600 or more per child each year, voluntary contributions might appear quite modest. That is not the point. A free education system should not put parents under pressure to contribute financially so that their child’s school can maintain its buildings, equip its classrooms, and pay its bills.

Labour’s education spokesman, Eoin Kenny, who received the voluntary contribution figures through a parliamentary question, said the Government needed to fund schools properly, increase capitation, and end schools’ reliance on these contributions. There are many costs associated with raising and educating a child over which the Government has little control, but voluntary contributions are not among them. The State can — and should — end this additional cost.

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Charity shops pay the price of fast fashion

Charity shops should not be used to salve the consciences of people who persist in buying mountains of cheap, fast fashion that they do not need. Yet that is increasingly what is happening.

As the Irish Examiner reported yesterday, and not for the first time, charity shops are increasingly being inundated with poor quality, cheap clothing that is impossible to sell.

Sheila McNamara, retail regional manager for St Vincent de Paul (SVP) Southwest, points out that nobody wants to buy second-hand Shein clothing when it is so cheap to buy new. Many charity shops report receiving bags containing unworn items with tags still attached. This suggests that some people are deliberately over-ordering, getting garments in various colours and sizes, knowing they will discard the unwanted items rather than go to the bother of returning them.

While donating to a charity shop may be preferable to sending unwanted textiles to landfill or incineration, it tends to transfer the problem of disposal from the donor’s wardrobe to someone else’s doorstep.

Charity shop volunteers spend an inordinate amount of time sorting through bags of donations to find items worthy of valuable rail space. The rest, the items that will not sell, have to be sent on for recycling. Even the money charities get for supplying recyclers has been cut because of the sheer volume of unwanted textiles.

Charity shops play an important role in our communities. They are a valuable source of funds for a wide range of organisations including Oxfam, SVP, the Irish Cancer Society, Enable Ireland, and other worthy causes. They also contribute to protecting the environment by extending the life of clothes. They deserve our support as both shoppers and donors, but that support must be responsible.

Perhaps the next time we feel tempted to add yet another item to our online basket, we should pause and consider if we really want it. If we want to support a charity, we could cut out the middleman and make a direct financial donation.

Or, we could take ourselves into a local charity shop and search for the bargains that are still to be found there.

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Testing time for learner drivers

New rules for learner drivers, aimed at ending the practice of motorists driving for years on learner permits without passing their test, came into effect this week.

Learner drivers who have had a permit for more than four years must now sit the driving test before they can renew it. Crucially, the days of indefinitely renewing permits by applying for or attempting and failing the driving test are over. Anyone who has not passed within seven years of getting their first learner permit, will have to start from scratch, including taking the driver theory test and completing the mandatory 12 essential driver training lessons.

That is an expensive prospect. The cost of starting all over again could easily reach €800 or €900 when the price of lessons, the theory test, the learner permit, the driving test fee, and the cost of insurance are added up.

As many as 73,000 drivers in this country have held three or more learner permits, with some 22,000 of those on between their 10th to 20th. It is inconceivable that they have all been accompanied by a fully licenced driver, as the law requires, in their decades of driving.

Time will tell whether the new rules will finally persuade these serial learners to bite the bullet. Facing a bill of up to €900 for the privilege of remaining a learner may prove the strongest incentive yet to take and pass the test.