USI PROTEST:A PROTEST against any plan to introduce a graduate tax or deferred loan scheme for students was staged outside Trinity College in Dublin yesterday by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI).
Some 30 students took part in the demonstration, which was held to coincide with the release of the Leaving Cert results.
In recent months, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe has signalled that a student loan system may play a part in Government plans for funding the third-level sector.
USI says if this system is implemented students enrolling this September could be liable to pay, though the scheme would not be introduced until September 2010,
The union’s president, Peter Mannion, said if Mr O’Keeffe was going to “continue on his quest to bring back third-level fees, it seems grossly unfair that the students who get their Leaving Cert results today will be signing up to a system that they don’t know the full and true cost of”.
Protesters carried placards and plastic chains to symbolise the weight they claim a student loan would place on students’ shoulders.
University College Dublin student union president Gary Redmond said “it’s not right that when these students filled out the CAO application they thought the State would pay for their education. Now they could be saddled with all this debt.”
USI estimates a four-year arts degree currently costs students €30,000 in books, course materials, accommodation and travel. It says this would increase by €10,000 per year if the current scheme was abolished. “This would leave these students crippled by debt upon graduation,” said TCD student union president Cónán Ó’Broin.
“This is Mr O’Keeffe, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party selling out the future of the country,” Mr Redmond added. In July, a report put before the Cabinet said arts graduates would have to pay a minimum of €21,000 or €5,250 per year, under a loan scheme.