Ahern takes plunge and joins fight for fair education system
Backing Education Minister Noel Dempsey's review of third level funding in front of the youthful audience at the Ógra Fianna Fáil conference, Mr Ahern said it was time to target support for third level education at those most in need.
He said: "If we want to break cycles of disadvantage and open up opportunity for all, we have to broaden participation in universities and institutes.
"Efforts over the last few years have been significant with the funding of new access programmes and the creation of the top-up grant for students from the poorest families.
"But we need now to step up activity. I do not believe this can be achieved through simply pouring more money into the same approaches. Support has to be targeted at those most in need and it has to be at a level which really supports them in college."
The comments produced another spate of recriminations and prophecies of doom from opposition parties.
Fine Gael education spokesperson Olwyn Enright sought clarification from the Taoiseach on his hinted support for Mr Dempsey's proposed fees return.
"Does the Taoiseach not realise the how expensive attending higher education already is? Registration fees have increased by 69%, accommodation costs are soaring and the student maintenance grant doesn't even keep up with inflation.
"Fine Gael believes that every young person should have equal access to education and will oppose the re-introduction of third level fees in every way possible," she said.
Labour education spokesperson Jan O'Sullivan said the threat of fees was another attack on students.
"State-funded third level education is a fundamental right as much as the right to free primary and secondary education. Such a concept is completely alien to this, the most right-wing Government in the history of the State.
"Sadly, it is the hard-pressed students and PAYE families that are being penalised again for seeking the most basic right the right to education," she said.
But these arguments are fundamentally flawed and the opposition need to explain why they are protecting the rich from paying fees by blocking their return in any form.
The self-same critics of granting medical cards to people over the age of 70 irrespective of their income levels have the audacity to claim it's fine to give high earners free third level education.
Meanwhile, inadequate resources are being directed at kids from disadvantaged families
You've got to ask what the difference is between free medical attention for millionaires and free third level education for millionaires' children.
Clearly Mr Dempsey is not proposing to bring back third level fees on the same basis as prior to 1995. The possible return of the means test does not necessarily mean struggling PAYE workers are going to be hit.
Setting the thresholds high would ensure only those who can really afford to pay fees do so. Access to education is not equal at all levels.
The rich can afford to send their children to fee-paying schools and then top that up with grinds to get them into the best courses.
Meanwhile, the current system has not dramatically increased the numbers of underprivileged students attending colleges.
Targeting additional funding from fees paid by the wealthy at getting students from disadvantaged backgrounds into third level colleges and then giving them enough money to stay there would be a far more socially inclusive measure.
Is this not a classic case of sharing the wealth across society?
The one shoe fits all. Low maintenance grants are not enough to ensure genuinely underprivileged students can make it through to graduation.
Top-up grants and additional incentives are needed to raise third level participation rates among the disadvantaged.
Rather than scaremongering, critics of the proposal should seek to tease out the issue further.
But it's also about time the Government stated exactly what it has in mind.
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