Madam, - Both David Jameson and James Brady (October 14th) base their comments solely on the basis of an unrepresentative, affluent small minority of students. While there will always be a subset wealthy enough to own "Abercrombie and Fitch tracksuit bottoms" or a "Mercedes cabriolet", the overwhelming majority of students still live on very basic means and do not have much money to spare.
While such well-off students could likely afford fees, the majority of students will find the reintroduction of fees an encumbrance, if not a total barrier, to receiving third-level education. This is the real issue and it should not be made seem frivolous by facetious anecdotes about a handful of rich offspring.
While I believe there are good arguments on both sides of the fees debate, and that such discussion is necessary in times like these, the spurious reasoning of Messrs Jameson and Brady does nothing but needlessly trivialise the matter. - Yours, etc,
MATTHEW HARVEY, (UCD psychology undergraduate), Ailesbury Grove, Dublin 16.