Labour faces backlash in refusal to rule out fees

THE Labour Party could face a political backlash as Education Minister Ruairi Quinn refuses to rule out a return to tuition fees despite pre-election promises to oppose them.

The 20-year higher education strategy of the expert group chaired by Colin Hunt last January called for some kind of contribution by students towards their degrees.

In his first response to the Hunt report since taking office, Mr Quinn said he will not make any decision on funding until he can weigh up the need to maintain quality and increase student numbers, but also to properly fund the third-level sector.

He said a report he has sought from the Higher Education Authority on the sustainability of current funding arrangements will help the formation of future government policy. But colleges have been saying for a number of years that it will not be possible to maintain the quality of education they provide or to meet ambitious targets for increasing student numbers without a radical increase in investment.

Mr Quinn told a forum on implementing the Hunt Report at the Royal Irish Academy that around €2 billion a year is invested by the Government in higher education. But experts believe that will need to rise to at least €2.5bn a year if the planned third- level participation of 72% of young people can be achieved. “We have to reconcile future demand for participation growth with limitations on public resources and a need to protect and enhance core quality. We need to know how those three parameters of numbers, funding and quality inter-relate.”

But, he told the Irish Examiner, the view being expressed by some colleges that they may have to cap student numbers in the absence of increased funding is counter to Government plans to increase participation by all sectors of society, as well as in actual numbers.

The minister said later that he is ruling nothing in or out on the question of tuition fees, but said that student charges will still have to increase by €500 to €2,000 a year from September, as announced by the previous government. Despite his public opposition to the rise before the election, Mr Quinn said the Fine Gael-Labour coalition had no choice but to implement the 2011 budget.

But Fianna Fáil education spokesman Brendan Smith accused him of a U-turn on the issue and of kicking to touch on funding by ordering another report when the matter was addressed by the Hunt report. “This smacks of a diversion tactic from a minister shying away from making tough decisions on a difficult issue,” he said.

Union of Students in Ireland deputy president, John Logue, said any deviation from the Labour Party commitment championed by Mr Quinn, not to reintroduce any form of third-level fees would be grossly misleading to many young people whose vote in the recent general election was influenced by that commitment.