Cabinet to hear O'Keeffe's options on third-level fees
THE shape of the proposed third-level fees package is to be discussed by a special cabinet meeting next month.
Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe favours a loan system, where students would repay the Government for the cost of their third-level education after graduating.
But he has given his cabinet colleagues a range of options for their September 15 meeting, including upfront fees, and he wants their views before making a formal proposal. The minister intends to introduce changes from the start of the 2010/11 academic year.
Speaking as he met Leaving Cert students in Cork, he warned that such fees or loans were now vital if Ireland was to afford the dramatic expansion in third-level participation envisaged for 2015. "There is no question of any fees or loans being introduced for this current academic year," he said. "I will make a presentation to Cabinet in early autumn."
He confirmed that, if third-level fees or a deferred loan system were to be introduced, it would breach the terms of the Programme for Government.
"You have to understand that the Programme for Government as it is currently constituted rules out third level fees. So Cabinet will have to change the Programme for Government were we to adopt, for instance, the proposals that I will make."
The minister said that did not mean Fianna Fail and the Greens would have to renegotiate their coalition deal.
"I am not aware that it is an issue that is going to arise as part of the review -- but it is a fundamental change and it is a change that I felt my cabinet colleagues would have to be involved with me on."
Benefit
He said the issues of expanded third-level participation and college/university funding were now inextricably linked. "What I am certain of is that we cannot finance the third-level sector into the future to the same extent that we are doing now."
The minister denied that third-level fees or deferred loans would mitigate against lower income families -- and argued it was necessary to ensure third-level participation is maximised to the benefit of such families.
Meanwhile, students yesterday staged a protest outside Trinity College Dublin over the impending re-introduction of third level fees.
"This is a time when students should be excited about receiving their Leaving Certificate results and going to college to study their chosen subjects, but many thousands of young people will be signing up to a system where their futures come with a hefty mortgage," USI president Peter Mannion told the Irish Independent.
"It is grossly unfair that these young people, who expected to receive a free education just over a year ago, will now be targeted with fees."
- Ralph Riegel
