Christian Brothers charge pupils €150 to use school pitches
Parents angry and surprised over the lack of consultation before decision
PARENTS with children at the country’s two fee-paying Christian Brothers schools will have to fork out almost €200,000 between them for the use of playing fields which are already owned by the order, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.
Some €135,000 will come from more than 900 CBC Cork students, while a further €66,000 will come from the 440 students of CBC Monkstown.
Parents at the Christian Brothers college Monkstown Park in south Dublin were informed that students would have to pay a licence levy of €150 each to the Edmund Rice Schools Trust (ERST) – the charity that is legally responsible for the interests of the 96 Christian Brothers schools – for the use of the school’s existing sports playing fields.
‘If it isn’t paid, are the lands in jeopardy?’
Parents at all Christian Brothers schools currently pay a €6 levy to use the playing fields attached to the buildings. That has been increased to €10 for pupils of schools that do not charge fees.
But the bill for parents at the two feepaying Christian Brothers colleges, in Monkstown and Cork, have been told that they will have to fork out €150 per pupil.
This represents almost €1,000 extra over a six-year pupil cycle. Fees at CBC Monkstown are currently €4,380 a year.
The increase also applies to the other fee-paying Christian Brothers school, CBC Cork, which charges fees of €3,900.
It is understood that parents are angry and surprised at the lack of consultation.
Earlier this month, the Christian Brothers order announced that it would be selling 7.5 acres of playing fields previously used by students at Clonkeen College in Deansgrange, south Dublin. The land is reportedly worth some €18m, a portion of which will be used to pay a €10m sum that is owed by the order to the Residential Institutions Redress Board in reparation for child abuse by Christian Brothers in some of the order’s schools.
The order also announced that it would be transferring all playing fields used by its schools to the Edmund Rice trust. This levy is now set to be paid to the trust to fund the ERST network.
A letter to parents said: ‘The directors of ERST have decided to set the licence levy for fee-charging schools for the coming year at €150 per student. This levy will transfer directly to ERST. No part of this fee is taken by CBC Monkstown Park. It does not form part of the tuition fees for the college.’
The ERST has defended the increases, saying parents of students within the ERST network who could afford to pay more should pay more. It added: ‘The increase is in line with the licence fee that other fee-paying schools pay to their trusts, probably even lower.’
Students at schools of over 450 students will pay €10 annually, while those in smaller schools will continue to pay €6 a year.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown councillor Cormac Devlin said: ‘Parents I have spoken to are surprised by it. Parents around Clonkeen are wondering why they were they not able to pay to safeguard their playing fields.
‘If a licence levy isn’t paid, does it mean that the lands are in jeopardy? Dialogue needs to happen.’