The Minister for Education's suggestion that he might reintroduce third-level fees came under sustained Opposition attack in the Dáil last night.
Mr Dempsey defended the review of "student support measures", adding that it would determine if the resources being put into the system could be redirected to achieve better effect.
"Considering the time lapse since the introduction of free fees, and the major question marks over the achievement of the stated purpose behind them, it seems entirely appropriate to me that the measures should be fundamentally reviewed," he said.
The Government was committed to ensuring that everyone, whatever their social or economic circumstances, had an equal opportunity to participate fully in education at all levels. "I hope that the review under way within my Department will point the way to the achievement of real progress in the future against that objective." Mr Dempsey said.
The Minister was replying to a Labour private member's motion condemning "the repeated threat" by Mr Dempsey to reintroduce third-level fees and demanding the immediate reversal of the 69 per cent registration charge increase.
Mr Dempsey said that students who were eligible for means-tested student support would not have to pay the registration charge. "The €670 charge will be paid on their behalf either directly by my Department or through the local authorities and vocational education committees. This means that at least 34 per cent of students in universities and 47 per cent of students in institutes of technology will not have to pay the charge."
He expressed surprise and disappointment that the Opposition appeared to have shied away from raising what was an issue of basic social equity that they might have been expected to bring to the floor of the House.
"Can we as a society continue to justify the expenditure of millions of euro from within the finite resources available for student supports in order to meet the costs of free fees for the children of those in the highest income brackets when, at the same time, all the evidence tells us that those at the other end of the economic spectrum continue to be excluded from third-level education?" he asked.
Mr Dempsey said that the evidence of participation rates at third level supported the view that the free fees initiative had not achieved its original purpose. "Indeed one of the more tangible outcomes of the measure appears to be the notable increase we have seen in the popularity of fee-paying secondary schools, with well-off parents now diverting disposable income from an investment in their children's third-level education to investment in a more privileged second-level education."
The Labour spokeswoman on education, Ms Jan O'Sullivan, said that access to education, at all levels, was a right which a good society should provide for its citizens through the tax system.
"It is not a privilege for those with money who will make damn sure that their children will get the best possible education anyway," she said.
"It is a false argument to suggest that, in order to stop them getting something for nothing out of the public purse, we must deny others. There are some services that society must provide as of right and pay for through taxes, and, surely, equality of access to education is one of them."
She warned the Minister "that the ordinary working man or woman who has a child in third-level education will rise up in anger if you proceed to penalise them in this way." She added that the ordinary PAYE worker could not afford to put a child through college as it was, never mind trying to do so if fees were to be brought back.
The party's spokeswoman on finance, Ms Joan Burton, said that means tests, in her view, were no way to distribute wealth and benefits.
The Fine Gael spokeswoman on education, Ms Olwyn Enright, said there was a lack of information and clarity about the review.
