No victory to be found in climbdown

The Government executed a feat of breathtaking proportions yesterday

The personal campaign for the reintroduction of third-level education fees which the minister had conducted stubbornly amid a storm of public opposition, had caused a fission between the two government parties.

What was witnessed yesterday was an exercise in the economics of expediency which saw the PD's opposition to the reintroduction of the fees upheld, and public anger mollified by imaginative accountancy.