MINISTER FOR Education Batt O’Keeffe yesterday confirmed his intention to bring proposals to Government this spring in relation to third-level fees, but said it would be “premature” to go into detail.
Speaking at the official opening of a Barnardos Brighter Futures Centre in Knocknaheeny, Cork, Mr O’Keeffe said he was asked by the Government to put together a report in terms of student commitment in the future and funding for third-level education.
“I hope to be in the position in the first two weeks of April to bring proposals to Government on that particular issue.
“Obviously, it would be premature at this stage to say exactly what we propose to do, but if you look at other jurisdictions you will see there is a student contribution by and large now to third level.”
Since the abolition of fees under the rainbow coalition in the 1990s, the number of students going to third-level education has gone up.
However, universities have complained of difficulties in competing on the international stage in the absence of funding.
At present higher education receives about €2 billion per year in State funding.
Mr O’Keeffe said the Government was facing into a tough week and year. Decisions to be made by the Government this week would be unpopular but they had to be seen through in the national interest.
The Minister’s comments came ahead of two special Cabinet meetings and discussions between the Taoiseach and the social partners about how to control public spending. Pay freezes and pay cuts are expected to be imposed across sections of the public service.
Mr O’Keeffe would not be drawn on the possibility of pay cuts for teachers, but said it was time for the country to face economic realities.
He said 80 per cent of his funding consisted of teachers’ pay, salary and pensions, and just 20 \per cent was left for the operational side of things.
He claimed it was very difficult to find other savings within education unless education itself was targeted.
However, he said the Government viewed education as an “absolute priority”, and he vowed to do everything in his power over the next two days to ensure that education was kept to the forefront.
He claimed that within his own department the cost of pay and pensions would have to be controlled in order to protect education services.