Stormont: Parents may have to pay more for school dinners and buses

Price of school meals could go up for parents under proposals to be discussed by political parties on Thursday

Parents may be forced to pay more for school dinners and bus fares under new measures proposed by education bosses, BBC News NI has learned.

Plans to scrap hospital parking charges could also be ditched to raise more revenue for the health service.

Free hospital parking was due to come into place from next year.

The proposals are among more than 40 revenue raising measures listed in a briefing paper due to be discussed by political parties on Thursday.

The document seen by the BBC sets out tough new measures across eight Stormont departments to deal with the ongoing financial crisis.

Meanwhile, a protest calling for free travel passes to be maintained for people aged 60 and above has taken place in Belfast.

In July a 12-week public consultation began on whether to raise the age at which people qualify for free public transport.

Stormont has been without a functioning assembly and executive for 18 months after the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) pulled out in protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.

Rents and MoTs to go up?

The measures outlined in the briefing paper include increases to:

• Price of paid school meals

• Cost of home-to-school transport

• Housing Executive rents

• MoT and driving test charges

• Street parking charges

Other measures previously put forward - including water charges, raising tuition fees, increasing bus and rail fares - are also listed in the briefing paper.

Health officials have proposed introducing prescription fees, charging for domiciliary care, changes to dental charge exemptions and increasing the cost of community meals.

They have also suggested "repealing" the Hospital Charges Act which would have allowed patients, staff and visitors to park for free.

Department of Justice officials have suggested raising court fees and also charging for "special police services".

Farmers could also face new charges for Bovine TB testing and see any subsequent compensation payments cut.

The measures are due to be discussed on Thursday during the ongoing talks between the head of the civil service Jayne Brady and the political parties.

Drawing up a list of painful cost-cutting and revenue-raising measures is the easy part.

Implementing even one of the 40 measures listed is going to be a challenge.

Such briefing papers serve a political purpose in heaping more pressure on the DUP to end its Stormont boycott.

But do not expect this list to feature in any department in-tray if and when ministers return to their offices.

However, it may come into play if and when the government and parties get locked in a battle over extra cash for a returning executive.

Expect the Treasury to insist on some of the revenue raising measures listed being implemented before any new cash is released.

Members of the trade union Unison gathered outside the Department for Infrastructure on Wednesday to protest about the proposed changes to free travel passes for older people.

Unison's retired members forum said raising the current qualifying age from 60 to 65 or 66 was unfair.

The department previously said eligibility for the free travel SmartPass had not changed since 2008 and it wanted to assess current views.

Unison's regional secretary Patricia McKeown said imposing the changes would "harm some of the most vulnerable people in our society, including older people and people living with disabilities".

She said without SmartPasses many people would have to make "difficult sacrifices" to be able to travel on public transport and others would not make journeys at all.

"SmartPass users have paid taxes and otherwise contributed positively to society for their entire lives - we will not allow these cuts to be imposed on those who can afford them the least," she said.