College fees ‘should be paid by well-off parents’

PEOPLE who can afford to pay college fees should be made to do so, according to the head of the country’s Institutes of Technology.

Dr Mary Meaney believes the Government should reintroduce fees by changing the way of assessing family income and improved grants schemes for students.

She was appointed at the weekend as chairperson of the Council of Directors of the Institutes of Technology. The council, representing the heads of the 13 ITs, has no formal policy on college fees, which is being reviewed by Education Minister Noel Dempsey.

However, Dr Meany said: “I personally believe that those who can afford to pay should pay. It’s all about access, but the number of people who are getting the opportunity to study at third level is not near enough. However, the whole grants structure needs to be reviewed; it’s not realistic to think people can live on what money is available,” she said.

Mr Dempsey was expected to bring suggestions to the Cabinet in late January on whether or not to reintroduce fees.

However, the review he began last September is expected to continue for another month at least. While the minister has said he prefers the ideas of fees for those who can afford them, senior government figures have knocked back the idea.

Dr Art Cosgrove, president of UCD and chair of the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities, has backed the option of graduates paying back the State for the cost of their tuition after they finish college.

This is one of the funding possibilities being considered by Mr Dempsey’s review group. “The benefit of a State loan system, like that in Australia and being considered by the British Government, is that parental income would no longer be a factor in deciding who goes for free,” he said.

More than half the €350m spent by the taxpayer on third level student support annually goes to cover tuition fees, which was taken on by the State as a Labour Party initiative in the mid-1990s.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said at the weekend that it was always going to take some years for the abolition of fees to have an effect on increasing access to college.

“It would be ludicrous for Mr Dempsey to try to turn the clock back by reintroducing an outdated and penal system of third level fees,” Mr Rabbitte said.