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no fees for current students
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09-03-2009 5:45pm#1straight from the horses mouth....
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/idgbcweysn/STUDENTS already taking part in third level courses will not be liable for fees or any loans system that the Government might introduce, Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe has indicated.
He also told the Irish Examiner he would be waiting until after next month’s supplementary budget before he recommends any changes to the free fees system to his cabinet colleagues.
His officials have spent the last few months preparing a report on various options for possibly reintroducing tuition fees, which were abolished in the mid-1990s.
The report to the Government in early April will set out different possibilities, including fees for people whose families are above certain thresholds or a loan system under which students would pay back their fees when they start earning a certain income.
Mr O’Keeffe said he does not think it would be fair that anybody already in college would be asked to be part of a new fee-paying system, if one was to be introduced.
"I would regard those people as having a contract with the colleges and I don’t think there’s any real fear for those people," he said.
But people who have applied for third level places next autumn will have to wait until after the mini-budget is introduced early next month before any announcement which might affect them. Any recommendation Mr O’Keeffe makes would also be subject to government approval, as the 2007 Programme for Government sets out that there would be no changes to the free fees system.
"I want to be informed of whatever new measures we have to take in relation to the economy, whether it’s taking funds out of public sector spending or imposition of taxes," he said.
"I want to family-proof what the implications and the costs are for families, and I’ll have regard to whatever changes are made in any adjustments we’re now going to make at the end of March," he said.
Mr O’Keeffe said the correct thing to do would be to see what impositions are placed in the supplementary budget on particular sections of society.
"If there is an over-emphasis on one section of society [in the budget], if they were suffering more than another particular section, I’d have to have regard to that," he said.
The cost of the free fees initiative to taxpayers is more than €300 million a year, with tuition paid by the Government for all Irish and EU students on undergraduate courses.
Good news for us current students looks like we've just got in before they put the prices up
... the €1500 registration fee next september is bad enough... on the flip side, this announcement basically confirms there will be a radical over haul of the current system.
€300m the 'free fees' system costs the government at present. 10 investors were given €300m in loans by Anglo Irish Bank to support its share price last year :cool:0
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