LIMERICK councillors supported a call to lighten the back to school financial burden on families.
At the September monthly meeting of the Metropolitan District of the Council, Aontú councillor Sarah Beasley took the view that school emblems and crests should be available for purchase independently of school uniforms.
She called on the local authority to write to Education Minister Helen McEntee, urging her to bring the suggestion into effect from next year.
“There’s a lot of financial strain out there and the increase in cost of uniforms has become huge. I was doing it myself, and I know the financial part. You have to have three shirts, a second jumper, the cost is very expensive,” Cllr Beasley commented.
“Rather than having to spend hundreds on uniforms, we could buy the emblem and stitch it on,” she suggested. “We’re going through a cost of living crisis, this would be a really good thing to roll out.”
Independent councillor Maria Donoghue seconded the motion, saying that “when you have a number of children, having to buy uniforms for all of them becomes incredibly expensive, and they grow at such a rate as well.”
Cllr Ursula Gavan (IND) also supported the motion, confessing that she herself was relieved to finally see her children finished with secondary school.
“We’re trying to create individual adults with creative thinking and independent minds, yet we want them all to sit like robots in a classroom. They should have their own voices heard,” she said.
