Children 'will be forced to quit school over costs'
- Published: 12 December 2008
CHILDREN will be forced to drop out of school next year as the economy plunges deeper into recession, the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) warned yesterday.
National vice-president Prof John Monaghan said education cuts in the budget would discourage young people from poorer homes in better-off areas from remaining in school.
He was part of the SVP delegation who briefed the joint Oireachtas committee for social and family affairs on the current extraordinary pressure on the society's financial and human resources.
Prof Monaghan warned children will come under increased pressure to drop out of school because of the removal of the book grant scheme; the increased cost of the transition year; the removal of child benefit for 18-year-olds and the increase in third-level registration fees.
He was also concerned at the impact of the reduction in the budget of the School Completion Programme and programmes, such as Youth Reach, would further disadvantage young people form poorer areas.
"We are concerned children will feel under pressure to leave school without completing their Leaving Certificate examination and look for jobs that will not be well-paid ones," said Prof Monaghan.
"I hope we are wrong in our prediction for next year, but it is a real fear we have for children of parents who are coming under increasing financial pressure," he said.
Prof Monaghan said poverty was already a fact of life for many people and was likely to increase dramatically over the coming year.
This weekend the SVP will make their annual Christmas appeal. It needs to raise €10 million to get through Christmas and the new year — double what they looked for last year.
Prof Monaghan pointed out that less than 10% of their annual funding comes from the state.
SVP is expecting calls for help over the first four months of next year will be 60% more than they were over the same period in 2008.
Some SVP branches are already running out of money, particularly those in inner city areas. "There is a lot of anxiety; a lot of pain, and a lot of fear out there," Prof Monaghan warned.
Labour spokeswoman on social and family affairs Roisín Shortall said families would find they were far worse off in the coming months as a result of changes in the way jobseekers' benefit is paid.
Fine Gael's Catherine Byrne said the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin, did not understand what it was like to be struggling. "The woman is out of sync with what is happening out there."
Fianna Fáil's Cyprian Brady said nobody in government liked the budget changes, but insisted they were made to ensure the most vulnerable were looked after.
"One thing that deputies on the other side are right about is that it is going to get worse and it is going to get harder," he said.
Senator Martin Brady (FF) said there were some people who believed organisations like the SVP were assisting people who were getting enough money but were not spending it properly. "We need to educate the public about the services provided by organisations like the SVP and why they are needed," he said.
