PROPOSALS WHICH could see the return of college fees or student loans will be presented to the Cabinet within weeks.
Confirming the move yesterday, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe said he would take “full account’’ of higher taxes and other levies imposed by the Government before finalising his proposals.
He also said any new fees regime would be accompanied by a new system of “family-proofing” designed to ensure fairness and equality. With higher tax and other charges inevitable, he said the Government was anxious to ensure undue burden was not imposed on any section of society.
Asked if he was talking about middle-income PAYE earners, he said: “That is one section of society where I would be anxious some system of family-proofing was in place.”
The Minister said any new fees regime would only target those who can afford to pay. The 33,000 millionaires identified in a Bank of Ireland wealth survey last year were the kind of people who could afford to pay fees, he said. “There are people out there earning very high salaries. There is no reason why the taxpayer should be paying for their children at third level.”
The Minister is due to present proposals on third-level charges to the Cabinet early next month. A final report setting out policy options was “well-advanced” and would be completed shortly.
The Minister said his recommendation to Cabinet would take account of the other charges and levies being imposed. “By the time I report, other income tax changes will have been imposed. In framing my recommendation I will be very conscious of that.”
Mr O’Keeffe said it was still too early to say whether fees or some new system of student loans and graduate taxes would be imposed.
The options paper – being finalised by the Department of Education and the Higher Education Authority – also examines an income-contingent loans system.
Officials have been examining the “learn now, pay later” Australian model known as Hecs (the higher education contribution scheme). Under this, students repay the cost of higher education through the tax system once they reach a certain income threshold. Mr O’Keeffe also said a review by the Comptroller and Auditor General of third-level spending would be published next month.
He was speaking at the launch of the National Strategy Group for Higher Education. Chaired by economist Dr Colin Hunt, the group will report before the end of this year. It is expected to examine a rationalisation of higher education, including much closer links between the seven universities and 14 institutes of technology.
Yesterday, Mr O’Keeffe said there needed to be a “rethink of roles and relationships within the higher education system . . . looking to new and deeper forms of alliances”. While the group would focus on science and research funding, the Minister said he was anxious arts and humanities also got due attention.
The strategy group is the first root-and-branch examination of the higher education system since an OECD review five years ago. That review backed the return of fees and a quantum leap in higher education funding to allow Irish colleges compete internationally.