Registration fee move ‘will not quell opposition’

THE possible postponing of the €1,500 registration charge will not be enough to quell student opposition to any government moves to introduce tuition fees or a loans scheme, a union leader claimed yesterday.

As details emerged this week of the options presented by Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe to cabinet colleagues on alternatives to the free fees scheme, one possibility being considered is that the charge for student services would be added to the amount of student loans for their tuition costs.

Mr O’Keeffe favours an Australian-type loans scheme which would mean students would not pay for their third-level education until after they graduate, and adding the registration fee to the loan amount could reduce the burden to students and their families when they start college.

Such a move may also be under consideration as a way to ease pressure from student groups and others who oppose any change to the system. But Union of Students in Ireland (USI) deputy president Dan O’Neill said it would add further costs to the Government and would not make a new student contribution scheme any easier to accept.

“People are angry that they are set to be charged later in life for their third-level courses, at a time when they are trying to buy a home or start a family,” Mr O’Neill said, as student leaders protested outside the Dáil against the anticipated measures.

While Mr O’Keeffe will not make any recommendation to Government until he receives feedback in the autumn from cabinet colleagues, he is known to strongly favour the deferred loans system.

Other alternatives set out for ministers are the reintroduction of a fees system for high-earning families, such as the scheme which operated until the mid-1990s, a combination of fees and loans, or continuing with free tuition fees and supporting poorer students with grants. But Mr O’Neill said the best way for the Government to help Ireland out of the economic crisis is to continue investing in education instead of seeking to save money.

“If they want to create a smart economy, more needs to be invested in our under-funded third-level system. The entire society benefits from a highly educated workforce and if Batt O’Keeffe wants 70% of school-leavers going to college by 2020, he should be encouraging them instead of taxing them,” he said.