Why should PAYE worker subsidise tycoons’ kids?

THE time is here when educationalists and politicians of all parties should objectively consider the reintroduction of third-level fees for students of the wealthier sector.

This, however, should not be seen merely as a step to ease the pressure on a Government that shirked its responsibility towards investment in education during the boom years.

Hi-tech industry is now shouting for top-level graduates in engineering and science.

It is obvious that our economic recovery will depend largely on industry which needs a steady inflow of graduates and postgraduates.

But our universities and IT colleges are starved of funding and they cannot compete with their counterparts in other countries.

Third-level fees were abolished in the early 1990s by Niamh Bhreathnach, a Minister for Education with vision and courage.

Career opportunities were opened to many students who otherwise could not have afforded the expense of pursuing advanced study.

But during those years, it was never envisaged that struggling farmers and lower-paid PAYE workers should have to subsidise the higher education of the sons and daughters of tribunal lawyers and business tycoons who prospered out of proportion during the years of plenty. The sons and daughters of the wealthy will always be well able to afford third-level education irrespective of the economic state of the country. Fees will not deter them.

The argument has been put forward by student unions and some politicians that the reintroduction of fees would jeopardise the educational prospects of the less-well-off. This argument is flawed.

If students’ families genuinely cannot afford fees, then they should not have to pay them. That is a starting point on which all can agree. Let an exemption threshold be agreed and families means-tested.

If families below a total annual income of, say, €70,000 were exempt, I cannot see a real difficulty. But let the exact threshold figure be open to debate.

We cannot sweep under the carpet the 2004 OECD review which reported that the abolition of college fees in Ireland has provided “substantial subsidies to students whose families could well afford to pay”. It is immoral in the present climate that this be allowed to continue.

Meanwhile, let’s not forget that our nearest neighbour brought back third-level fees several years ago without any apparent educational damage.

Despite the economic downturn, more Irish students, this year than ever before, have opted to attend British universities and colleges and can pay their fees without a whimper. And these students do not all come from the high-earning families.

We have relatively few universities in the Republic with one college from the IT sector — Waterford — having a strong case for university status that has been endorsed by the Government’s own independently commissioned assessment.

The statutory process for upgrading should be initiated now. It makes no economic sense to allow the research programmes of our top universities and institutes to be stunted for want of adequate resources.

The payment of fees would of course still fall very short of the essential funding required.

But it would be a help. And that help should not in any way be used as an excuse for relieving the Government from the budgetary responsibility of providing its own funding of higher education.

Brendan Coffey

Abbey Court

Monkstown

Co Dublin