With fees for seven-day boarding now running at more £5,000 per annum, it's a safe assumption that most parents sending their children to these schools are among the financially better-off. Wealthy business people, large farmers, doctors and lawyers are among the people who have traditionally sent their children to expensive schools. Diplomats and other government officials serving abroad have also relied on Irish boarding schools to educate their children. In recent years, this group has been augmented by the families of a growing number of personnel working overseas, often on contract, for Irish companies (the ESB and Eircom for example).

In Protestant-managed schools, however, the situation is quite different. Yes, they get their share of the well-off and the professionals at home and abroad, but they also boast a much wider social mix.

According to the Rev John McCullagh, secretary to the Church of Ireland Board of Education, half the day pupils and half the boarders in Protestant schools are in receipt of means-tested grants. Most Protestant secondary schools are fee-paying and not part of the free education scheme. The Central Protestant Churches Authority receives a block grant from the State, which it distributes among the needier Protestant students to enable them to receive a Protestant education.

With up to 500 boarders (out of a total enrolement of 770), the co-educational Kilkenny College is perhaps the largest boarding school on this island. All-in annual fees for boarding are almost £4,000. However, well over 50 per cent of boarders are in receipt of means-tested grants, according to the headmaster, the Rev Robert Black. "Families make unbelievable sacrifices to have their sons and daughters educated here," he says. Many students have parents or other family members who are past pupils of the school. Students of Protestant minority and Jewish religions in the south-east are given priority, and Black notes a growing interest in boarding. Every year the school has to turn down significant numbers of applications from people living outside the area. "Our numbers have quadrupled in the last 15 years and we are continuing to grow," he notes. This year, the school admitted 102 first-year boarders.

The fact that many boarding schools now allow pupils home for weekends has served to increase their popularity, Black says, since it enables pupils to enjoy closer contact with their families and maintain their links with their local communities. "Many students on our rugby teams also represent their home teams and want to keep up the connection," he says. Some parents in rural areas are often reluctant to allow their children to spend long hours travelling to and from school on a daily basis, preferring that they benefit from the extra-curricular activities available in Kilkenny College. However, "grim", "depressing" and "lonely" are the words used to describe their school days by many adults who attended boarding school in Ireland during the 1960s and '70s. Even those who had less unhappy experiences often left school with a sense of regret that they missed out on family life.

"I've nothing against boarding school," comments Richard Bruton TD, Fine Gael's policy and press director. "Sometimes parents have no option but to send their children away from school. But I do think it's an artificial way of life and cuts you off from your family. My brother John, for example, was away at school from the time I was six until I was was 12. When I was at boarding school, he was at home. For 18 years, I saw him only during the holidays. "At day school you enjoy the best of both worlds. You see only the best side of your friends. At boarding school, you're with them 24 hours a day." "As a parent, I wouldn't be over the moon about sending a child to an institution which kept in up to 400 pupils of the same sex. It's hardly a normal upbringing," says a former boarding-school headmaster.

"I was at boarding school and it was grim," comments Alexandra College's principal, Barbara Stanley. "But things have changed. In my time you had awful matresses and you weren't allowed bring personal possessions. Nowadays each girl has her own area with a pinboard. They bring their own duvets and cuddly toys - they can make their space their own. They get good supervision, but they have free time too and great access to facilities."

Whatever your views about boarding school and the rightness or wrongness of sending children away from home for long periods of time, there's no doubt that boarding suits some families. Rural families and families living abroad apart, lone parents and families where both spouses work long hours or have heavy travel commitments appreciate the stability that boarding school can provide for their children. Many students opt to avoid the distractions of home-life and attend boarding school for the Leaving Cert years.

And sending children to boarding school can relieve family stress. No more fights about staying out late, drinking and going to discos at weekends, about watching TV or doing the homework - for many families, it sounds like heaven.