Stipends are not used to finance binge drinking

Having read your feature ‘Underage youths get their drinks in Paceville’ (The Sunday Times, December 12), there is a point I’d like to highlight.

When asked from where underage children get the money to buy alcohol with, the 16-year-old who accompanied your reporters through Paceville said Junior College students use their student stipend while secondary school students depend on their pocket money.

What irritated me most was the comment about the stipends, as the pocket money the others receive depends on the parents.

One has to realise that students get a total of €83 a month from the government. Of this, €20 is used just on public transport. An average of €10 weekly is spent on other accessories, such as reference books, photocopies, and lunch.

This means that in a month a student only has about €23 left from the stipend to spend.

Is it possible for any teenager to get involved in binge drinking every weekend with just €23 for four weekends? Obviously not. Most students who resort to binge drinking usually have a part-time job.

Such a remark was important to note, as after reading the comment made by the youngster I have no doubt the most common reaction would be: “So that’s what students spend our taxes on!”

And in no time we’ll end up thinking of removing the stipend or making students repay it to the government.