1% levy on corporate profits to bridge 3rd-level fund gap

A 1% levy on corporate profits could secure most of the €600m needed to bridge third-level funding gaps, a teachers’ union claims.

The idea has been proposed by the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) which represents 4,000 institute of technology lecturers, as a solution to the higher education funding crisis and to ease staffing shortages in many sectors.

The union suggests it would raise nearly three times the €200m which the Department of Education suggests could be raised from 2020 by its proposal to increase a levy on employers to help meet funding shortfalls at third level.