Dempsey ‘must not use changes to bring back college fees’

EDUCATION minister Noel Dempsey was warned yesterday not to use his changes to the admission system for medical courses as a way to reintroduce college fees by the back door.

Mr Dempsey plans to abolish the current degree system for medicine and health disciplines and replace them with postgraduate courses.

But opposition parties expressed concern over how students pursuing medicine and dentistry would be financed as free fees do not apply to postgraduate courses.