USI headquarters became Fianna Fail's home away from home (well, even more so than usual) last week as the party launched its position paper on third level education.

Speaking to a gathering of student leaders and the media, the Fianna Fail spokesman on education, Micheiil Martin, said that the party had chosen USI's Furnace club for the launch because "it is our view that third level students are the main consumers of the third level education system".

Equally, one might have pointed out, the party could have chosen the Furnace because it would have been hard to throw a stone without hitting a young FF-er, if one had been fortunate enough to have a stone to throw.

The document itself makes a number of general commitments on maintenance and support, including the raising of grant income limits, an independent appeals procedure for grant applicants who believe they have been unfairly refused a grant and "a gradual increase in the present level of maintenance grant as resources permit".

The document also promises to extend grants to PLC students, at an estimated cost of £11 million; to provide some relief to those who marginally exceed the income limit for grants and to give full grants for all qualifying mature students who return to college on a full time basis, with provision for child care costs.

Fianna Fail commits itself to encouraging greater investment in research and development, increasing places in high tech and language disciplines and extending tax relief for postgraduate, mature and second chance students though many of these promises carried the proviso of "subject to the availability of resources".

Sadly, the document failed to address the issue of student representation at HEA and committee level, though Martin did say that the party had "no difficulty with student representation", which was nice.

There was also no reference to the £150 service charge applied to students, which is currently being looked into by the HEA in an effort to find out exactly where this money is going and why students' unions, clubs and societies are seeing so little of it.

Martin described the charge as an "entire joke" and said the elements of the charge should be clearly categorised, with possibly a separate category entirely for student services.

In the end the document, despite omissions, is an admirable statement of intent. In the event of Fianna Fail's return to government, it will be interesting to see how it fares in the harsh light of fiscal reality.