MINISTER FOR Education Batt O'Keeffe has received qualified support from his PD Cabinet colleague, Mary Harney, for reopening the debate on third-level fees, but his predecessor Mary Hanafin poured cold water on the proposal.
"I would prefer not to see a return to fees," Ms Hanafin, now Minister for Social and Family Affairs, said yesterday.
By contrast, Ms Harney said in Cork that she was not surprised Mr O'Keeffe had mooted the idea of reintroducing fees as he was "a new and innovative Minister". But she said a range of issues had to be examined.
Mr O'Keeffe provoked an intensive political debate yesterday after he told The Irish Times that the introduction of third-level fees for better-off families was being considered.
Ms Harney said she had not yet seen any proposals from Mr O'Keeffe. But she said universities and the third-level sector faced challenges and if Ireland was to succeed globally, "we need to have the best possible university and third-level institutions in the world, certainly in Europe".
"He obviously wants to make sure he looks at every issue in an open minded fashion . . . if we are to have a thorough review of the funding of the third-level sector, then everything has to be examined and clearly it would be inappropriate to rule things in or out at this stage," she said.
Accepting there was no reference to fees in the Government's programme Ms Harney added: "Not every issue is dealt with by the programme for government."
She said one of the most disappointing features of the economic boom was that while the numbers attending third-level education had gone up, the numbers coming from disadvantaged backgrounds remained low.
However, Ms Harney's party leader, Senator Ciarán Cannon, came out strongly against Mr O'Keeffe's proposal and said his party had given a commitment in the last election that third-level fees would not be reintroduced.
Mr Cannon said the issue was one of principle for the PDs, and said there had been no consultations with his party on the issue and no proposals had been brought to Cabinet.
"The PDs acknowledge that the universities have raised serious issues about funding and these have to be examined in a thorough manner. The PDs do not believe, that even in difficult economic times, anything should be done, that would reduce the opportunities for students from all income strands from entering third-level education," he said.
A spokesman for the Green Party also insisted that Mr O'Keeffe's plan was not a Government proposal but a statement of the Minister's own views which had not been put to Government. "The reintroduction of fees is not in the programme for government and it is not Green Party policy. It is far too early even to speculate about the return of fees," added the spokesman.
Announcing his intention of looking at the issue, Mr O'Keeffe emphasised that there would be a high income threshold.