Leaving cert students facing fees uncertainty

Parents and children must wait anxiously while the Government dithers on the introduction of fees. Local election candidate John Duffy of Fine Gael said that the threatened fees could make the difference between children getting a third level education or facing the dole queue or emigration.
"Fine Gael has guaranteed that fees won't be re-introduced. We will introduce a graduate tax instead where people will contribute to the cost of their education when they are in a position to do so. They will pay an extra fee through their PRSI contributions, raising up to 500 million euro for colleges and universities," said Duffy.
He said that this was not just an election promise but is based on a positive analysis on the way the third level system should work.
"What we have now is students sitting down to exams this summer in schools like Moyne Community School, attempting to get already high points targets for certain careers and faced with an unknown burden in fees as well," he said. "This is not the way to encourage students to further their education, it's not the way to help parents weigh up the costs of college and it's not the way that Ireland is going to produce the knowledge economy of the future."