Future college graduates would be levied with higher PRSI charges to pay for part of the cost of their third-level education, Fine Gael has proposed.
Once fully in place, universities and institutes of technology would get €500 milion per year from the levy – but student registration fees, now costing €1,500 per year, would be abolished.
The proposal would not affect any student currently in third level, Fine Gael TD Brian Hayes, education spokesman, said today, when he launched the proposal along with party leader, Enda Kenny.
Under it, students would pay 30 per cent of the cost of their education bill through a higher PRSI charge that would be imposed for up to ten years. Doctors would pay €1,233 a month in extra PRSI over five years under the plan, while those who studied for an arts degree would pay just €190 a month over the same period.
But Fine Gael ruled out the re-introduction of third level college fees, which were abolished during the Rainbow Government’s period in office in the mid-1990s.
“The future prosperity of this country depends on getting higher education right. As these proposals show, Fine Gael is determined to reform the higher education sector and reposition our Universities and Institutes to become world leaders in education. Delivering quality higher level education cannot be left to chance,” said Mr Kenny.
The number of third-level students has expanded since fees were abolished, rising from 120,000 in 1996 to about 170,000 now. “That's an amazing achievement in just 12 short years. In the 1980s about 20 per cent of the leaving cert students went on to higher education, today it's over 60 per cent,” said Mr Hayes.
However, major reforms on campus are required, including greater specialisation, efficiencies and value-for-money, he warned college chiefs.
Currently, there are “about ten, or eleven” colleges teaching economics in the Republic: “It is hard to see how anybody could reach world-class standard that way,” he said.
Despite the increase in college numbers in recent years, the State should drop the ambition of having 72 per cent of all second-level graduates in third-level by 2013: “It is nether affordable nor required if a proper further education and training system was put in place at a national level,” said Mr Hayes.
In response, a spokesman for the Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe said the Fine Gael proposal was "somewhat surprising" on the basis that Mr Hayes "exhorted the Government parties to be 'honest with students' as he stood on the back of a lorry at a student demonstration for free third-level education earlier this year".
The spokesman accused Mr Hayes of seeking to gain favour with the student constituency "while neglecting to tell them that he was planning a graduate tax".
"Fine Gael's graduate tax plan is largely notional since, conveniently enough, the party can't tell us when it'll introduce it," the Minister's spokesman said. "Fine Gael talks vaguely about reforming higher education, yet it can't give us a timescale."
Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa said he was "outraged" at the proposal.
"This is a misuse of the social insurance fund, which is intended to insure people against sickness, disability, accidents, unemployment and support in old age, it should not be used as a sneaky tax on education," he said.
Sinn Féin education spokesman Senator Pearse Doherty described the Fine Gael proposal as "third level fees in disguise"
“While preaching to third level students that he is totally against the reintroduction of fees and will be fighting along with them, in reality it is quite clear that Deputy Hayes is talking out of both sides of his mouth on this issue," Mr Doherty said.
He compared the proposal to Australia's "Higher Education Contribution Scheme," under which students have their fees paid for by the government and then pay back the amount owed through extra taxation.