USI accuses Government of kicking funding issue down the road

A fully taxpayer-funded third-level system should be urgently decided on by the Government, thousands of students insisted at a national protest.

They travelled from colleges around the country to push for political decisions that do not include moving to a loan system where graduates pay back higher fees when they start earning a set income level.

With no political agreement more than a year after publication of the Cassells report setting out long-term funding options to address a looming €600m shortfall in the sector, the firm message from those who marched in Dublin was that any level of debt would not be tolerated by current students or their families.