Fees move will cause inequality, says USI

BRINGING back college fees would mean only rich parents’ children could afford some third-level courses, a student leader warned yesterday as thousands protested in Dublin.

If fees were brought back high-cost courses such as medicine and dentistry would be cordoned off exclusively for the children of the rich, said Union of Students in Ireland (USI) officer Brendan Ferron.

“Fees would not only affect students, but would have an irreversible effect on the Irish social structure. This would create a two-tier society of those who can afford the right of education and those who cannot,” he said.