Parents of pupils attending a Killarney secondary school are considering fielding a candidate in the local elections in protest at the high water charges it pays each year.
In total, the three secondary schools in the Co Kerry town paid almost €40,000 between them in water charges in the last three years.
The charges, based on metered water consumption, have been at the same commercial rate as some of the country's top hotels located in the tourist town.
The Parents' Association of St Brendan's College said yesterday that it was considering running a candidate to get their charges reduced.
The average annual charge in the boys' school, which has 520 pupils, is over €5,000, a 70 per cent increase in 10 years.
Meanwhile, the all-girls St Brigid's Presentation College paid €20,000 in charges last year while Killarney Community College paid over €4,000.
Mr Ed O'Neill, the principal at St Brendan's College, said the money for water charges comes out of the school's capitation grants for students and that the charges were akin to a stealth tax.
Items such as library books and computer equipment suffered because thousands of euro each year had to go on water.
As it is, his school could only afford one caretaker, although it needed two.
Claims by some councillors that the schools were profiting from renting out their gyms were not true, he added.
His school gym was made available to the local basketball and football teams and, in return, the school got coaching from these teams.
A meeting of schools' principals in the Munster region recently heard that most schools pay between €300 and €500 in water charges.
Schools four times the size of St Brendan's in the Munster region are paying substantially less, Mr O'Neill has discovered.
"We in Killarney want to be treated the same as every school in the country. This \ has been going on for 11 years now," Mr O'Neill said.
Killarney Town Council has offered the schools a 25 per cent reduction on the commercial rate for 2004 but has refused to budge any further.
Labour councillor Mr Seán Counihan said it was very hard on the council to be the ones to have to charge schools. However, it was up to the Department of the Environment to subsidise the schools' water charges.
The town council could not afford to give water freely, added Mr Michael Courtney (Independent) , the mayor of Killarney.