Sir, – Ferdinand von Prondzynski wants the Government to reintroduce fees in order to provide proper funding for third-level education; Lynn Ruane wants it to raise taxes to achieve the same goal ("Third-level fees – the case for and against", December 7th). Both are likely to be disappointed.
At this point one wonders what it will take to make the Government, or any government, act to stem the continuing deterioration in the quality of third-level education in Ireland. Perhaps when Ireland has no universities in the top 200 of the word rankings, or maybe when an embarrassingly large number of our brightest young people are leaving to get their degrees abroad. Possibly when the IDA starts to find it difficult to attract foreign companies to Ireland because the quality of our graduates is so poor.
Perhaps after the forthcoming election we will get a minister for education who realises that his or her brief runs beyond the first two levels of our educational system, but I am not holding my breath. – Yours, etc,
FRANK BANNISTER,
Dublin 4.