Abolishing college fees not a priority if returned to Government, say Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael would not abolish the €3,000 student registration charge if returned to Government but would focus instead on boosting grants to ensure a greater number of less well-off students can access college, a seminar has heard.

The pledges were made by representatives of both parties at a pre-election hustings debate on the future funding of higher education held at DCU on Wednesday afternoon.

Sinn Féin and Labour representatives, by contrast, said they supported abolishing the registration fee in its entirety, in addition to investing in other grant supports to make college more affordable for less well-off students.

Student registration fees are, officially, €3,000 a year. However, they were reduced by €1,000 in last October’s Budget on a “once-off basis”. The registration fee was also cut to €1,500 for families with an income of under €100,000.

The question of funding for third level is set to come into focus shortly in next month’s budget and in the forthcoming general election. In addition to questions over the cost of college for students, the third level sector argues that there is black hole in university finances due to unfunded public sector pay awards and slow progress by the Government in boosting core funding for the sector.

Last week the provost of Trinity College Dublin became the latest university leader to warn of the risk of a “quiet and gradual decline” of the country’s higher education institutions.

A report compiled for the Government in 2022 found that additional core funding of €307 million was needed to strengthen the sector over a number of budgets.

While the Government maintains that just over a third of the sum has been delivered, universities argue that much of it has been swallowed up with public sector pay increases.

At the hustings event, all political parties said they supported providing the full core funding needed for the sector, as well as investing in research infrastructure and making greater use of a “huge” surplus in the National Training Fund.

There was division, however, on how students should be best supported financially.

Fianna Fáil’s higher education spokesman Senator Malcom Byrne said free fees – introduced in the mid-1990s – had not boosted access to college for less well-off students. Improving Susi grants, he said, was a better way of doing so.

“Politics is about making choices,” he said.

Fine Gael’s higher education spokesman Senator Joe O’Reilly agreed that student grants were a better way to boost access to third level. The move to cut registration fees in the last budget had “effectively abolished” fees for many, he said.

“Truthfully and honestly, we’ve done enough on that . . . the real issue is access and Susi grants . . . we should put our eggs in that basket and improve the maintenance element and lift the ceiling to access it,” he said.

Sinn Féin’s higher education spokeswoman Mairéad Farrell TD said abolishing the student registration charge remained her party’s policy.

“To me it’s a question of access. We’ve had free second level education and we’ve seen how beneficial it is . . . we’re totally committed to abolishing it,” she said.

Labour’s higher education spokeswoman Senator Annie Hoey also said her party would scrap the student registration fee on the bass that abolishing it in the 1990s led to much greater participation in third level.

Senator Pauline O’Reilly of the Green Party, however, said while the next government could work towards abolishing fees, the priority should be tackling underfunding of the sector and student accommodation

Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit–Solidarity said he supported “completely open access” to higher and further education, without fees.

“It is incomprehensible that we are rationing access to further and higher education,” he said.