USI tells business to fund schools

THE Government and the business community should be less hypocritical and more giving towards Irish education, Union of Students in Ireland (USI) president Will Priestley said yesterday.

He said the Government was boasting about creating a knowledge-based economy on one hand while it cuts budgets for third-level colleges on the other.

“Education Minister Noel Dempsey and his colleagues are talking about increasing access to higher education but Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Coughlan has refused to even meet us for the past two years about restrictions in the Back to Education Allowance,” Mr Priestley said.