Hard choice on fees dodged for too long

This weekend, as all the kerfuffle around establishing a Government fades, it would not be surprising if some senior Government figures, in the darkening quiet of their sitting room at dusk, and in the company of a large whiskey, asked what they had got themselves into and wondered if even a moderate degree of success is possible.

Equally, Fianna Fáil’s old hands can take comfort in the fact that they have secured significant influence but evaded any real responsibility and the prospect of the negative consequences of not delivering on election promises.

Every minister, and probably every junior minister too, has a bulging in-file and more than enough of those files are deemed urgent. Some, if not the majority, are legacy issues that might have been dealt with by the last Government but the business of getting re-elected got in the way — as it always seems to.

One of those issues has been kicked to touch so often that it is fair to speculate whether it will ever be confronted, much less resolved in a way that will satisfy some of the people some of the time.

However, speaking at UCC yesterday, Royal Irish Academy president Mary Daly took the opportunity to speak about the crisis in funding third-level education. This is well documented and very real but it is also a red-line issue for many people, especially those who believe, or more accurately hope, that costs do not increase even if that situation undermines the entire system.

Prof Daly put it succinctly: “No system can sustain a 38% decline in state grants [over the last seven years] and... absorb a 25% increase in student numbers ... There is no magic solution ... they demand tough decisions on the part of Government. A decision is critical, but sadly not in prospect.”

This has been the situation for some years. Higher education was hardly a hot-potato issue during the election campaign, despite the imminent publication of the report from the Expert Group on Future Funding of Higher Education. It is anticipated that this report will advocate the introduction of increased fees — which, in reality, already exist — and a loan scheme to help students pay those fees.

This is, like so many other issues, pressing as the uncertainty that exists today undermines the system needlessly. It is long past the time this thorny issue was grasped allowing our colleges to plan with a degree of financial security.