To be pissed off that out of €624 I have €14 left.

[BumWiper]

Collected my child benefit this morning and after buying school books for 2DC I have ?14 left.
Which is earmarked for the tv licence.

[elmofan]

That actually sounds reasonable Clappy Where did you go ?

[BumWiper]

Education might be better but in classes packed to capacity are children going to get that education?
We will be educating them only to send them overseas for work.

[BarbieLovesKen]

Excellent point bumwiper

lurkey I know. It's so sad. Your poor parents your dad Is probably best off seeking a disability allowance if it's an incurable illness - that's true about the 24 month cut off on illness benefit - have heard it before. I work for the board too - I'm there 6 years and am now earning less than when I started (??!!). I dint know. I hear on the news this eve that this budget will be very severe. I dont think any of us can take any more so I dont know how that's going to work. I'd leave but you can't claim social welfare if you leave a public sector job.

[clappyhands]

we were near the ring of kerry elmofan, but "in the north" it would have been about £25

(it was lovely but...........mmmmmmm)

[elmofan]

Is your ds1 in his final year of school mary?
I feel so sorry for the kids that have just left school.

[elmofan]

Oh no You must worry yourself sick over him.

[VioletV]

Ladies can I ask what are the rules in the national schools in Eire? Are the books pretty much the same as the normal schools?

[VioletV]

Oh and I will add. The cost of living is double that of the UK so all those banging on about how the OP is getting loads of money why don't you tally up the cost of visiting the Doctors, getting tablets etc etc. It doesn't get you far at all. So no the OP isn't BU and for the person who said the CB is for the kids and not a TV licence, so do you think the children don't watch TV? What a stupid thing to say!

[royaljelly]

Ebay?

[BumWiper]

National schools are normal schools.There are no rules or limits on the books but they run to pretty much the same curriculum.So whilst one school pick out books from companyA the next school will pick out books from companyB.

[VioletV]

Aw right thanks for that. I've just moved over here from uk so getting my head around everything!

[WriterofDreams]

People in Ireland often call primary school "national" school, so all primaries are national schools and they're pretty much all the same.

[unpa1dcar3r]

Ireland is heaps more expensive for just about everything in certain parts like Dublin. This is why wages and some benefits are higher (My SIL is Irish!)

Bumwiper, I would have a look at Amazon in future or something like that. £29 for a recorder is extortionate! I've bought things like that for literally a couple of quid for mine.
Don't you have cheaper shops out there? I know you have Pennys which is like our Primark (Primarnies), there must be other choices to get a better deal?

Still, at least it went on the kids.

[unpa1dcar3r]

Oh I'm told the education system there is excellent too, very different to ours the way it's all worked out. I know SIL did tonnes of GCSE's.

[WriterofDreams]

That's right unpa - in secondary school you do the Junior Certificate when you're about 15 and nowadays kids usually do about 11 subjects (I did 8 but the number went up after my year). Also, it is relatively unusual to leave school after the Junior Cert as it's really not worth much so most people go on to do the Leaving Certificate or the Leaving Certificate Applied (which is a less academic version). You have to do a minimum of 6 subjects for the Leaving, including English, Irish, Maths and one foreign language, so most people have quite a high level of education in these subjects which I think is very important.