This article is from page 4 of the 2008-09-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
A CLARE TD has warned that school children in the county could be left on the side of the road as the cost of school transport reaches an all time high.
The cost of uniforms with special- ised crests, and the cost of books, which are constantly changing, 1s also putting added pressures on par- ents’ coffers.
Fine Gael TD Pat Breen has claimed that parents will have to dig deeper into their pockets this September with the cost of sending children to school on the increase once again.
‘The reality is that the cost of get- ting children ready to go back to school is expensive and while the Back to School and Footwear Al- lowance is in place, many families find that the allowance is not enough. Parents also face the problem of having to pump out more on school transport charges this year,’ he said.
‘Indeed the entire school bus trans- port system is facing a year of uncer- tainty due to the Government’s mis- handling of the removal of the fuel rebate scheme.”
“Children will be left at the side of the road if school transport opera- tors have to withdraw their services
mid-term due to unexpected costs. If private operators start pulling their services it will have a devastating impact on rural school children and their families.
“The government already increased school bus charges due to arise in fuel costs, these have not been passed on to the companies which operate the school bus routes. The government needs to state clearly if there will be a replacement fuel rebate scheme for school transport services.”
He said he was disappointed that the Minister Mary Hanafin refused to review the grant aid available to families to meet the cost of school
clothing and footwear.
“She fails to understand the fi- nancial difficulties facing families. School transport alone has risen by a whopping 70 per cent,” he said.
In response to a parliamentary question in July, the minister said, “The adequacy of back to school clothing and footwear allowance payments will be kept under review. Any changes to the structure of the scheme would have cost implications and would have to be considered in a budgetary context and in the light of resources available for improve- ments in social welfare payments generally.”