Students to pay €3.50 for school water bills
The Government faces a major new storm after it imposed a €3.50 water levy on thousands of primary pupils.
And in quietly slipping out the latest 'stealth tax' announcement last night, it immediately triggered widespread anger among parents and teachers.
The new move means schools will have to pay a rising charge to meet the annual €30m water bill.
After last night's Cabinet meeting it was announced that they would have to pay €3 for each student to cover last year, €3.50 for this year and €4 for next year.
And from 2010, all schools will have to pay the full cost of water services used on a metered basis.
However, the country's 56 fee-paying secondary schools will have to pay their full metered bills immediately.
The decision follows last month's u-turn by the Government after it was forced to back off on imposing huge bills on individual schools.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said schools should "hold on to their bills" while the Government puts "transitional arrangements" in place. However, there were no indications until last night that the arrangements would involve a levy on hundreds of thousands of pupils.
A government spokesperson said that the move was in line with the water framework directive and revealed the Cabinet had received legal advice from the Attorney General.
The announcement followed days of talks between officials of the Departments of the Environment and Education. The Irish National Teachers Organisation claimed the Government was trying to hide behind faulty legal advice. Charging children for water should not be a legal matter, said General Secretary John Carr.
He said the union had demanded a moratorium on the imposition of water charges on schools before 2010. Instead, more than 20pc of the increase for running costs provided in the Budget would now be clawed back on this one item.
"With schools already asking parents to fundraise for running costs this is a stealth tax on schools that parents will have to pay. It shows how out of touch this government is in relation to primary education," he said.
Mr Carr added that there was no mention of the commitment in the Programme for Government to provide schools with an allowance, with charges only becoming applicable when this is exceeded.
"This means that full commercial rates will be charged on schools in 2010. This is completely unacceptable and will be a major issue in the 2009 local elections."
But government sources said the commitment to look at an allowance was one of the issues examined and the legal advice was that allowances could not be given to schools under the European Directive.
An expert group will be set up by the Departments of Education and the Environment to help schools come up with water conservation policies.
But Sean Cottrell, Irish Primary Principals Network national director, said the decision meant that for the first time fixed charges per pupil were now part of the education system which was supposed to be free for pupils.
- John Walshe and Michael Brennan
