AT 15, Cherry has an expensive taste in clothes. She is hoping to get a job in the local Dunnes Stores next summer but doesn't anticipate spending any of her earnings there. Last summer, she looked after two children, aged four and seven years, for a month. She was paid £100 a week for working from 8.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. "I didn't want to dip into the £400 but I spent about £150 on clothes and Christmas presents."

Meanwhile, she would like to work part-time during term time. "I'm trying to get some babysitting but my parents won't let me babysit anyone I don't know." Cherry has filled out an application form for Spar. She asked if she had to be 16 to get a job. "`Well, yeah," she was told, "but I wasn't. They said, put down your real birthday and we'll give you a job anyway."

At present, she gets £5 a week pocket money and "a fair bit of money for clothes. If I did have a job in Spar, I'd get less. I'd like to work and know I'm earning the money myself. Then, my parents can't say I'm wasting it."

Conor, now 16, worked as a kitchen porter in a hotel last summer. He was paid £3.50 an hour and really enjoyed it although he had no set hours and was called in to work at a few minutes notice. Th money went to buy clothes and CDs.

He worked in a wholesale business on Wednesdays and Saturdays - from 1 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. - for two months before Christmas. Paid £3 an hour, he didn't enjoy the work as much - packing shelves and pricing items. Now, he is actively seeking part-time work and says most of the boys in his class are working.

"A friend of mine works as a lounge boy and comes to school knackered. Then he has to go and work after school again." Others work in McDonalds and, although the pay is reasonable, the slagging isn't worth it, he says.

"I delivered papers for years but the pay was dreadful. I was paid £5 or less for delivering 300 papers - that would take about three hours." Conor anticipates working through Transition Year and fifth year but will give up work for his Leaving Cert year.

At 16, Niamh babysits most Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. She earns £2.50 to £3 an hour and usually works from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m., at the latest. This limits her opportunities to socialise but she wants the money for clothes. She is also saving up to pay for a school trip to Paris which will cost £280.

Just about everybody in her class babysits, she reckons, and about half of her class works part-time in newsagents and supermarkets. She ensures she is home by midnight on Sundays and says: "It's fine. I'm used to it. I'm OK on Monday mornings. Everyone has a problem getting out of bed for school".

Sarah, 15, also babysits at weekends and gets paid from £2 to £3 an hour. At weekends she may work until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays but will work only until 11 p.m. during the week. "I try to save the money but I end up going to the cinema or to town on Saturday . . . I end up spending it on rubbish. I'm trying to save for new clothes and runners."

Next year, when she's in fifth year, she hopes to get a part-time job in Roches - "you have to be 16 and I couldn't be bothered pretending."

Sarah says lots of her friends work in a local hotel as lounge girls. They work very late hours and don't look any older than their 15 years, she says. The employers don't care.

Ann, 16, coached in a sports camp last summer, earning £50 a week, and working mornings only. "I loved it," she says. She babysits one night each weekend, from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. and one night during the week, until 11.30 p.m.

"It has no effect on school," says Ann. "I'm in fourth year and it's not very stressful." Again, she uses the money to buy clothes. As to working in Leaving Cert years, she says: "I don't think you should stop yourself just because you have exams. You make yourself more stressed."

Her parents prefer her to work weekends but Ann prefers working during the week as this leaves her free to go out at weekends.