O’Keeffe: Fees may be needed to support less well-off

EDUCATION Minister Batt O’Keeffe believes it is fair to consider the possibility of high-earning families paying for their children to attend college in order to help the less well-off achieve the same.

The minister suggested he had raised the question regarding the reintroduction of third-level fees as part of a national debate on the funding of higher education.

“I expected, in the early days of the debate, to have the usual opposition cries with no forethought and no rational arguments in terms of what we should plan ahead for,” Mr O’Keeffe said as he congratulated students collecting their Leaving Certificate results at Ballincollig Community School near his own home.