Students want parents on fees protest
ANGRY students yesterday asked parents to join them in their protests against third-level registration fees.
Students will be staging a series of nationwide protests as they fear the annual charge may be further increased in the forthcoming Budget. The cost of the annual registration fee rose from €900 last September to €1,500 this year. The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) staged a protest outside the Dail yesterday to highlight the difficulties encountered by many students in paying the fee.
"We are very worried that the Government will use this as an opportunity to bring tuition fees in the back door," the USI's president Peter Mannion said.
He urged parents to join them in their series of regional protests over the next few weeks. "We will call on the parents because it is the parents who sometimes bankroll the students through college," Mr Mannion said. "It is up to parents whether they can actually afford the registration fee now, or whether they can afford it next year when it is going to be €2,000 or €2,500.
"If they are not prepared to pay that, then they need to stand up and say to the politicians that this is not acceptable." The USI claims a number of countries in Europe pay less in tuition fees than Irish students are charged in annual registration fees.
- Louise Hogan
Irish Independent
