Education fees - Problems don’t begin at third-level

THE question of fees for third-level education has reared its head again.

It has attracted the predictable responses from the Opposition parties and the Union of Students of Ireland (USI), as it did when Education Minister Noel Dempsey floated the idea last year.

A threat from the junior partners in Government, the Progressive Democrats, halted the proposal in its tracks at that stage, and presumably the party is still against the idea.