Tax breaks to speculate — not to educate

THERE is a serious anomaly in the proposal to “tax” new graduates for a number of years — 10 is mentioned.

We have three boys currently in university. The fees for one of them — a PhD student in UCC — are e5,600 this year.

In three years that is e16,800 in fees for one. Another son is doing his masters. Another will graduate with his primary degree this year. For all three we have paid registration fees down the years. Being from rural Ireland we also had to pay very expensive accommodation fees. While the property speculators who own the student accommodation got tax breaks, the parents paying the rent to them could not claim that expense against income tax. We have all heard of the need for education and the knowledge economy. Yet there are tax breaks to speculate and not to educate! Now if these students are taxed on graduation we are to pay up again. We would have been caught before and after — forced to pay up under the old system and again under the new.