Madam, - My eldest child began his educational life this year in a Dublin primary school and it has been a real eye-opener in all sorts of ways.
I have a new admiration for the hard work done by the principal and the teachers but I have also been taken aback by the under-funding for primary schools and the pressure that parents are put under to raise money for basic things.
Surely the education of our children is something the Government should be funding properly. After watching Minister Conor Lenihan on TV and listening to Minister Mary Hanafin's comments on the issue of schools paying water rates I am really angry and feel like this is one step too far from the people who are supposed to be running the country. - Yours, etc,
ADRIAN McCARTHY, Iveagh Gardens, Crumlin, Dublin 12.
Madam, - The controversy over schools being forced to pay for water services has once again highlighted the total abdication of responsibility by the Government for the maintenance of essential public services.
In particular the suggestion by Minister of State Conor Lenihan, that somehow it is the responsibility of local councils to meet those costs is hypocritical beyond belief. It ignores the fact that this Government has consistently under-funded local government in the first place.
In figures supplied to me by the Dublin City Manager, it is a clear that for the year 2006 alone that shortfall is approximately €200 million. This comprises the shortfall in making equal the amount forgone on domestic rates (€110 million), the cost of paying the benchmarking increases (about €76 million) and - perhaps most disgracefully - the unpaid rates on Government properties (€26 million). To expect local councils to meet the cost of water supplies to schools from unspecified and non-existent resources is unfair, unreal and downright opportunist.
As a Parent of two young school-going children I understand the anger of the school managers and I appreciate the enormous voluntary effort of the many parents groups who raise so much money to meet basic costs.
In the run-up to the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty it is particularly odious to hear Government Ministers blaming the EU. They should stop blaming Brussels and stop blaming cash-starved local councils.
For once they should accept responsibility for their decisions, fund the education system properly and give all the children of this nation a real chance. - Yours, etc,
Cllr DERMOT LACEY, Beech Hill Drive, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.