‘Other options’ on high college fees

The chairwoman of the Oireachtas committee which will make the crucial recommendation on whether students will be expected to pay back higher college fees insists that other options will also be considered.

Fianna Fáil TD Fiona O’Loughlin was responding to opposition raised by students and youth representatives to the income- contingent loan scheme on which debate about funding the third-level system has been largely focused.

It is one of the options set out in the report on higher education funding produced by experts, chaired by Peter Cassells. But the presidents of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), Irish Second-level Students Union (ISSU), and Trinity College Dublin Students Union told the Oireachtas education committee that such a system would burden young people with debt before even graduating, and deter those from poorer families from going to third-level.