The case for a return of third-level fees received a setback yesterday when one of the State's foremost researchers on inequality in education cautioned against the move, writes Kathryn Holmquist, Education Correspondent.
Dr Patrick Clancy, whose ground-breaking reports over 20 years have exposed the extent to which the third-level system favours the better-off, said that while it was wrong to reintroduce free third-level education, it was probably too difficult to reverse the decision.
Institutes of technology may close if they have to charge fees, since many of their clientele - who tend to be from lower socio-economic groups - would no longer be motivated to attend.
Urban ghettoisation was the major barrier to third-level for poorer students. Cut off in disadvantaged areas with pupils only from their own communities, second-level students in north and west Dublin had no role models to follow into third level.
Access to third-level education was still biased towards the middle and upper-middle classes of south Co Dublin, who sent more than 90 per cent of their children to university, while in poor areas of Dublin, such as parts of Clondalkin, the rate was 13 per cent. Changing this would require a major social restructuring at all levels, starting in pre-primary age groups, and would involve every area, not just education, he said.
Only two countries had improved access to third level - Sweden and the Netherlands, where third level is free and taxes are higher than in the State.
At a conference organised by the Dublin Employment PACT, Dr Clancy said the Government's efforts to bring more people from disadvantaged backgrounds into third level were not working.
Over the past 40 years the "huge disparity" in educational achievement by county had changed little, he said. Dublin sends a lower proportion to third level than any other county. Likewise, in 1961, the capital had the lowest proportion of pupils achieving secondary-school qualifications.
Rural western counties were more successful in sending children to third level because being poor was less of an educational disadvantage there. Secondary schools were more fair, taking in students from all socio-economic backgrounds. This social mix was essential to equality but no one knew how to achieve it in Dublin.
"Fee-paying schools are not better; they get a better clientele," he said.