Simon Harris: €3k college registration fees 'too high' but they will have to be paid this year

Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris said that the €3,000 registration fee can be paid in two instalments.

More third-level places for in-demand courses including teaching and nursing are to be made available, the Minister for Higher Education has said.

However, students will have to pay the full €3,000 registration fee this year even if much of their learning is online, Simon Harris has said.

Opposition TDs have been calling on Education Minister Norma Foley to reduce third-level fees for students whose courses will now be mainly online or through blended learning due to Covid-19.

Mr Harris will bring a memo to Cabinet on Tuesday to increase the number of places on some college courses to meet Covid demands.

"I'm really conscious of the fact that you know often when somebody comes at a school they say: 'I might take a gap year, I might go to Australia or New Zealand or America and come back and do college later,' that's not really an option in the Covid world.

"Others might decide to work for a while and go back to college at a later stage, that may not be an option, in terms of employment opportunity so we need to make sure we provide more educational chances," he told RTÉ radio.

"I'll be briefing Cabinet tomorrow on my plan to increase the number of college places this year, and we'll be looking at increasing them in two areas, one area is where this is a societal need, so I think Covid has shown us we need more people in the health service we need more teachers to lower class sizes, so areas like that.

"And then secondly also some of the high-demand places where you could say to the universities and the colleges 'look you have a few extra spaces here give them out among your high-demand courses'."

While Mr Harris said he would like to see the registration fee fall, he could not promise that this would happen in the upcoming budget.

"I do think the registration fee in Ireland is too high and it is something that I would like to see addressed, obviously that depends on a whole variety of issues but I am committed to working on it."

Mr Harris said that the €3,000 registration fee can be paid in two instalments and encouraged families to apply for the SUSI grant.