Fianna Fáil has stepped back from plans to introduce income-contingent loans to help meet the cost of third level education.

Speaking on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the party said it was unable to get the plan independently verified and as such, the plan had been “set aside”.

In its election manifesto, published on Thursday, the party said it was “examining a new loan system” for students who do not have access to the student maintenance grant.

Under the plan announced last October, the party had drawn up detailed proposals to set up a new lending agency for students if elected to government. Graduates would repay the state-backed loans once they start earning more than €30,000 and unpaid debt would be written off after 30 years.

Reference to the agency outlined in the October plan, "Towards a fairer future: Universal Access Scheme for Third Level Education", was omitted from the manifesto.

Instead, the party said the principle of access to education “determined by merit and hard work, not ability to pay” would be central to party policy.

It said the existing undergraduate maintenance grant system would be maintained and would be increased in line with inflation at a total additional cost of €12.5m annually.

In addition Fianna Fáil said it will increase the student assistance fund to help disadvantaged students access third level at a cost of €4.7m annually.

DCU Student Union president Kim Sweeney said that it would have been "an awful decision to go ahead with the loan scheme when Fianna Fáil saw the response from Irish students. Even a lot of their own candidates were opposing it."

Kevin O’ Donoghue of the USI says that the introduction of a student loan system is unreasonable and would deter students from entering university.