The end of free fees has nothing to do with a quest for equality of access to third-level education and everything to do with disguising Government cut-backs, writes Pat Rabbitte, leader of the Labour Party

The spectacle of 10,000 young people crowding into Molesworth Street in Dublin recently, demanding equal opportunity in education warmed the cockles of this old student's heart. Idealistic Ireland is still alive and well despite the depredations of the individualistic years of the Celtic Tiger. Privilege in our society is arguably more a function of education than of money. Of course, it is not always possible to separate the two. Last week's protesting students know that some in their ranks will be knocked out of college if third-level tuition fees are restored.

The first great grants march, as it was termed, happened in the spring of 1968, led by the colourful USI president at the time, the late Howard Kinlay. Membership of the USI was then predominantly drawn from the universities and Dublin colleges of technology.

The network of regional technical colleges - now institutes of education - was only beginning to come on stream. There was no universal grants scheme in place in early 1968 and the marching students were either in college on their own steam or because their parents could afford to support them in university.

In other words, in 1968 education was indeed a privilege. I remember well the USI president handing over to his deputy, Ciaran McKeown, towards the end of the protest so that he could leave for his part-time job in RTÉ.

Of course there were very few part-time jobs at the time and, consequently, a third-level education was largely the preserve of the better off. Ordinary working families on average earnings could not aspire to a university education. The introduction of a grants scheme later that year did eventually transform participation. The provision of additional places and the development of the technological sector assisted the trend towards greater participation. The students who assembled in Dublin from every college in Ireland in early 1968 made an impact.

The next milestone was the decision of Niamh Breathnach, in the Rainbow Government, to abolish tuition fees. It's often forgotten now, but the two-fold effect of that decision (abolishing often-abused covenants and eliminating fees at the same time) resulted in a potential opening of third-level gates at very little cost.

Participation rates may have been transformed but, as successive Clancy Reports have shown, we are still a long way from equal opportunity. This bears out the fact that many young people are lost to the education system long before the barriers to third level are encountered.

At the time, the decision to abolish third-level fees was made, I was not entirely persuaded that it was the best way to use resources. I believed at the time that a stronger case could be made for increasing thresholds, grants and allowances. But I strongly supported the objective - to break through a psychological barrier once and for all, and to ensure that, in future, the arguments about access to third-level education would not be contaminated by the issue of privilege. If we turn the clock back on that, we will, for sure, once again create a system where only the children of better-off parents can genuinely aspire to join a wide variety of professions and careers.

Of course, it was always going to take some years for the abolition of fees to have an effect. The problem of access to third-level education doesn't just raise its head when a student reaches the age of 17 or 18, and so, it does take time for the free-fees initiative to achieve its full effect. From this point of view, it also requires significant and intensive interventions in primary and secondary education as well if free fees are to work to fullest effect. Trees do take time to grow to maturity.

As things stand now, the Government pays a lot of lip service to the issue of educational disadvantage. How serious they are is illustrated by their treatment of the National Education Welfare Board. This Board was established last July under the Educational (Welfare) Act, 2000 and given responsibility for school attendance matters throughout the country.

It is clearly a vitally important area as repeated truancy in a direct route to disadvantage and an early exit from the education system. Considerable work has been put into getting the new service up and running, but now the Government has cut its allocation from €13 million to just €3.2 million, which means that it will not be able to provide anything like the level of service required.

Our society is enriched in many ways, some of them perhaps difficult, if not impossible, to measure, by the existence within the population of a large and growing cohort of graduates. The economy gains in that Ireland's attractiveness to foreign investment is increased and indeed the capacity of domestic industry to compete and develop is also enhanced through the effect of investment in third level education on the stock of human capital.

The Exchequer gains through the increased tax yield - whether income tax or indirect taxes - compared with what it would otherwise be if, for example, we had no graduates at all. The Exchequer also gains on the spending side through, for example, income supports, unemployment benefit pay-outs and so on being less than they would otherwise be.

In an ideal world, in fact, we should go further than free fees. Our aim should be to support students in a variety of other ways, not just to enable them but to encourage them too. What we cannot and should not do is to decide to dress up the search for quick and easy savings in the language of equity. That is what the present Government is trying to do, and we will oppose them every step of the way.