Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless said he “fully intends” to reduce the student contribution fee over the lifetime of the Government.
Referring to his public comments about the €1,000 fee increase he said it was not a policy decision. It was “a simple but sincere statement of budgetary fact and the fiscal situation we are in”.
Third-level fees were reduced to €2,000 as a once-off cost-of-living measure three years ago and was rolled over for two further years. Mr James Lawless said on RTÉ radio nine days ago that without a cost-of-living package in the budget, fees would have to increase again to €3,000 “as things stand”.
He said “every decision comes with trade-offs. We have to be honest with people. And unlike the Opposition I won’t tell people that every need can be met in a single budget.”
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He told the Dáil “the one-off measures while welcome were temporary in nature. I am moving to permanent measures that will benefit families and students in the long run.”
Mr Lawless was speaking during debate on a Sinn Féin private member’s motion calling for a cost-of-living package that cancels the €1,000 fee hike and calls for a further €500 reduction and a commitment to abolish fees entirely within the next two years.
The party’s further and higher education spokeswoman Donna McGettigan described the move to increase fees as a “calculated attack. It landed it right before the change your mind deadline” for university applicants and as student union officers across the State were changing at the end of the academic year.
“This was a deliberate attempt to push through an unjustified hike, knowing full well that the impact on students and their families would be devastating,” she said.
’Everything for everyone’
Earlier today, the Taoiseach accused Opposition parties of calling for “everything for everyone” rather than targeting or prioritising “those who are left behind”. He made the comments in the Dáil as he was challenged about student fees and “price gouging” on groceries.
Micheál Martin insisted student fees would be part of the budgetary process and they were in “exactly the same position” this time last year on student fees as the estimates had not provided for the reduction.
The potential hike of €1,000 in third level fees to €3,000 and the cost of groceries dominated leaders’ questions in the Dáil ahead of a student protest outside Leinster House on Tuesday evening.
Opposition party leaders have consistently raised the issue and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald again sought clarity on whether fees would rise.
She pointed to charity Barnardo’s report revealing “many working families are forced to borrow money to pay for basics, to cut back on essentials, and one in four parents skip meals so that their children can have enough to eat”.
Ms McDonald said “it beggars belief” the Government is refusing a cost-of-living package in the budget and that in families with two or three people going to college, “that is a big whack”.
Mr Martin did not clarify if the fees would increase but said “there’s an estimates process, and there will be a budget. But we’re going to look at the full range of supports, including fees” as well as “stronger supports” for students with disabilities and from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Taoiseach said there are “lots of instruments” to help students, particularly those on middle incomes and lower incomes to make college more affordable.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said the way Government Ministers had been talking “you would think the cost-of-living crisis had ended”.
Price inflation may be slowing but prices continue to rise, she said. “Students and their families are now facing huge uncertainty as to their fees for the coming year” and “no clarity from Government as to whether this will be the case or not”.
The Taoiseach said to interruptions that “all the parties on the left favour universality and everything in terms of provision and have not argued once today for targeting or for prioritising those who are left behind”.
He said their “entire focus is on ‘give everybody everything, whatever scheme you bring in’”.
‘Price gouging’
Ms Bacik called for the Government to support the Labour Bill to “ensure price gouging by big retail chains can be tackled” and “see transparency at least in the profiteering of big supermarkets”.
Minister of State Alan Dillon had asked the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) to “determine the existence of excessive pricing” among supermarkets and they were looking at increasing the CCPC’s powers, the Taoiseach said.
But acting leader of the Social Democrats Cian O’Callaghan said the CCPC did a review in 2023 “which didn’t achieve anything when you’ve given them no extra powers” and “is not going to produce anything different this time”.
He asked the Taoiseach if the Government “have the political guts” to act and to “compel supermarkets to publish their profits” and action “to control grocery prices”.
Mr Martin said “we do have guts to take on anyone who’s engaged in price gouging” which has to be done through an “evidence-based approach”.
