A STUDENT has brought a High Court action alleging he cannot get a place on a medicine undergraduate degree course at an Irish third-level institution because of an "unfair policy" of limiting the number of places for Irish and EU citizens on such courses.
Frank Prendergast secured six As in honours subjects in his Leaving Certificate in 2007 and achieved 550 points, just below the 570 points required to secure a place on a degree course in medicine.
He said he then wrote to the five institutions here that offer medicine, seeking a place on the courses and offered to pay the same fees charged to non-EU students, for whom places are set aside in medical courses.
He claims he was refused a place because the colleges involved are prevented by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and the Minister for Education from giving EU citizens a place on a medical undergraduate course unless they obtain the required points.
In his High Court proceedings against the HEA and the Minister, he claims they have directed the colleges to drastically reduce the number of places for EU citizen students in medicine courses. He contends that this is unfair to EU students especially as some of the non-EU students had obtained a place despite having lower academic scores than those obtained by him.
He claims the non-EU students admitted to medicine are not generally selected by reference to policies to assist disadvantaged communities or states.
In his action, Mr Prendergast (20), Mount Merrion Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin, wants a court order requiring the defendants to rescind the directions relating to the number of places they can offer to EU students. He is also seeking several declarations from the court including that the limiting of the number of places available to EU students in undergraduate degree courses in medicine is unlawful, lacks statutory foundation and is unconstitutional. The defendants deny the claims.
Opening the case before Mr Justice Peter Charleton yesterday, Michael McDowell SC, for Mr Prendergast, said his client was not looking for State funding, but rather wanted to be treated the same as the non-EU students.
A system was developed in the 1970s under which the five colleges offering medicine would have a quota system for Irish/EU students whose education costs would be subsidised by the State.