The Minister for Education and Science, Mr Dempsey, yesterday staunchly defended his decision to review free third-level education.
Mr Dempsey told students that he wanted to make education more equitable, but without loss of quality.
The issue of college fees and a review of the system was "wider than those of you lucky enough to get to third-level education", he told the Union of Students of Ireland (USI) annual congress in Killarney.
Students saw education as a tool for personal wealth and development; in turn he needed to use the education system to break the cycle of poverty, the Minister said.
Mr Dempsey said the reality was that it was the parents of most of the students at the congress who were paying for them at crucial stages of their own lives.
Student loans, he added, would make students more independent and less of a burden on parents.
"At the moment the reality is parents are lumbered with debt," Mr Dempsey said.
Afterwards the president of the USI, Mr Colm Jordan, accused the Minister of "shallow and simplistic answers". He warned that the USI would continue to fight for greater access for everybody.
Mr Dempsey said a decision on the return of fees would be made before Easter, but he stressed he was not going to pre-empt the recommendations of the review group on third-level education.
But any changes made to third-level finances would be to make them more equitable.
"Equity and quality will be the two core principles. There cannot be a trade-off between the two core principles," he said.
It was not just the sons and daughters of people from certain postal addresses in Dublin who were not getting a chance at third level education.
The second and third members of what would be regarded as comfortable middle-class families were now not able to get to college, he added.
In his own case, he was the first of 11 children to reach third level. Two of his children were at third level, one fee-paying, the other not, and he was not "entirely remote" from the reality of what it cost to keep people in third level.
The Minister said he was not scared of student resistance to fees in response to one student, Mr Paul Dillon of UCD, who said: "Watch it, Minister. If you go ahead, we will resist."
Mr Dempsey said he had looked at the Australian and UK student-loan models.
The Australian system gave rise to increased participation in third level from people of disadvantaged backgrounds, the Minister said.