Teachers running a summer project for children in one of Dublin's neediest areas are having to go into personal debt because of insufficient official funding. The project, run by teachers from the Christian Brothers' School in St Michael's Estate, Inchicore, caters for 100 children but has had to turn away another 50, a situation which project leader Mr Seamus O'Neill described as "criminal".
Apart from the project "there is absolutely nothing else" for the children during the summer, he said. "They would wander the streets or they would have to pay £50 to £70 a week to join another project."
The Inchicore project charges a mere £10 a week but some children cannot get even that. But "if they haven't got the money we don't stop them," he said.
The project is the brainchild of himself and teacher Brian Shanley. Their aim, said Mr O'Neill, is "to provide children with educational, sporting and cultural activities during the summer in a safe and secure environment."
The fact that the aim is laudable and the project desperately needed in the area was not enough to save the two teachers from ending up with a personal debt of £2,000 last year until "some friends bailed us out".
The project costs £17,000 to run and official support is paltry. Dublin Corporation gives £200. "We have an application in to the VEC but we haven't heard back yet. If we get that it would be £800."
Third-level students employed on the course are funded by the Department of Social Welfare's summer jobs scheme.
The activities for the children include computers, making radio programmes (the children will do their own radio programme at the end), mime, art, drama, cricket, rounders, table tennis and volleyball.
High-quality and badly needed the project may be, but when it ends on July 31st, the organisers will have only a few weeks' respite before they begin a round of quizzes and fund-raising events to cover this year's overdraft and to get the money together for next year.