Madam, - Universities and other third-level institutions cannot function effectively without proper funding. Anyone who can afford private second-level education, not forgetting all those grind schools, surely can afford to pay third-level fees. It is the children of families on low or modest incomes who need financial help.
During very difficult times in this country many middle-class parents who valued education made colossal personal sacrifices so that their children could have third-level education. Maybe their lifestyles were no match for those enjoyed by most people right now. So, now that not everything is rosy in the nation's economy, those who are well off will simply have to do without some of the excesses and pay for the university education of their offspring.
Why should taxes from people who do not earn a great deal subsidise the third-level education of the children of consultant physicians, surgeons, doctors, high-powered lawyers, corporate executives, some exceptionally well-paid public servants, very wealthy businessmen and women, high earning broadcasters, politicians, professors and so on. It beggars belief!
Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe is thinking on the right lines, but I do hope he won't prove to be another Noel Dempsey. - Yours, etc,
MARY TOOMEY, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
Madam, - The report by Seán Flynn (August 11th) contained the welcome news that third-level fees are no longer being ruled out. However the article goes on to claim that "the abolition of fees in the mid 1990s led to much wider participation at third level". In fact there is no evidence that the abolition caused this expansion just because the two events coincided.
Wider expansion occurred because of the greater availability of places coming on stream. In other words it was supply, not demand. If one looks at the proportion of UCD undergraduates on local authority grants one sees that it rose steadily from the 1970s up to 1995, after which it consistently fell. This is hardly an indication that the policy somehow improved the lot of the disadvantaged.
Advocates of that policy conveniently forget that prior to its introduction, people from low-income backgrounds did not pay fees in general as they would be entitled to local authority grants. Thus the policy was largely a hand-out to the relatively well-off. Far from providing a level playing field, as was claimed at the time, it took away the one advantage the less well-off had in what has to be one of the most socially regressive policies in recent history. - Yours, etc,
Dr KEVIN DENNY, UCD Geary Institute, Belfield, Dublin 4.
Madam, - Stephen Collins (Opinion, August 12th) writes that "it seems bizarre that third-level education should be provided free to families who can afford to pay for private schools".
Is it not equally bizarre that private schools, which are financially and academically selective and which persistently refuse to accept children with special needs are subsidised to the tune of €90 million a year while schools which accept their social responsibilities continue to be underfunded? - Yours, etc,
LOUIS O'FLAHERTY, Lorcan Drive, Santry, Dublin 9.
Madam, - Batt O'Keeffe's statement that any return of university fees would not have an impact on the middle classes raises a thorny question: Who are the middle classes? - Yours, etc,
HUGO BRADY BROWN, Stratford on Slaney, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - So Batt O'Keeffe is undertaking that any reintroduction of fees will not affect the middle classes and will target only those on high incomes. As a high-income definition, the figure of €100,000 is being bandied about. A single-income family earning €100,000 is very much in the middle classes, discriminated against as it is through tax individualisation.
The Government's policy is to penalise families for raising their own children at home. Consequently such a family earns no more in reality than a double-income family where each salary is at most €45,000. If the latter is not also classified as being "wealthy", does this not mean further discrimination against those who believe in minding their own children? - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL POWER, Stillorgan Wood, Kilmacud, Co Dublin.