Come May each year the media are filled with horror stories on the outrageous cost of children's First Holy Communions. But this is only in the ha'penny place in comparison to the modern debs' ball.
A ticket for two for the night itself starts at well over €100. Dresses come in at anywhere between
€200 and €500, dress suit hire is up to €100, and that's just the start.
And as if all of this wasn't enough, these newly-graduated school-leavers are also investing in limousine hire to take them to and from the event. "It's a once in a lifetime event," says Zoe, a former pupil of a girls' school on Dublin southside.
"This might be the last time that everyone from our year is together in one place. And we all want to make the night special." Zoe and her boyfriend and two other couples have booked a limousine to bring them to their debs' dance. "Our first idea was to hire it just for the craic," says Zoe. "We thought it would be really funny to arrive at the hotel looking as if we were going to Oscar night. The six of us would get out looking like celebrities and that would be a bit of a buzz. But then we started thinking about the practical things as well. Having the limo means that we don't have to worry about finding taxis later. There is a post-debs party in a friend's house after the ball, and the limo is collecting us and bringing us there. That party will probably go on all night, so getting home after that won't be a problem."
The one slight disappointment for Zoe and her friends was that none of the limousine hire companies they contacted would allow alcohol in the cars. "We were hoping to have a bottle of champagne in the back and have a drink on the way but that wasn't allowed. My mum telephoned to explain that we would be all over 18 but they still wouldn't allow it," claims Zoe. "I suppose it's not the end of the world though. We can have a drink in our houses before we leave if we really want to."
And the cost? "Our limo is costing us €200, that's €100 for bringing us there and another €100 for collecting us," she says. "Between six of us that's only a little over €30 each, and we all figure that it's very good value. After all, a couple of taxis each way could end up costing not much less than that."
John McDonald, owner of Encore Chauffeur Drive in Dublin's suburb of Sandyford reports a brisk business from debs' balls this year. "The debs season is always a busy time for us," he says. "We get a lot of bookings from debs who are looking for something special. We can offer them the choice of a Daimler, a Rolls-Royce or a Mercedes and they really enjoy it." There are many requests for drink in the cars but this is not an option: "We get some people enquiring if the cars have cocktail cabinets and so on, but this is really not appropriate for this sort of an event."
The trade in Cork is brisk as well. "We have 13 cars and we have had them all out on debs business several nights last week and they are all booked out on a number of nights this week as well," says Joan O'Dea of Limo Ireland of Glanmire. "If we had double the number of cars we could have them all booked out for debs balls at this time of the year." Again, Limo Ireland has a no drink policy. "We will sometimes get parents telephoning us to ask if champagne or whatever could be available in the cars," she says. "But we can't do it. While that parent's child might be over 18 we don't know about the others, so it is written into the booking form that there will be no alcohol in the cars."
She describes the modern debs as a "mini wedding". "It is very much a mini-wedding these days. They spend a lot of money on dresses, hair-dos, professional make up and so on. The limo is now very much part of the whole package. In fact, we had one case where we telephoned a customer to ask if a the time of a pick up could be changed but that wasn't possible because it would clash with the arrival of the caterers for the party afterwards."
Marissa, a school friend of Zoe's, sums it all up by saying: "We've finished school, we've all got our leaving results and have chosen different colleges and so on. This is our chance to go out in style before moving on to other things in our lives."