Madam, - We are rightly paying tribute to the late Donogh O'Malley for announcing his determination to introduce "free education", albeit it in a limited form,40 years ago.
Many people who are reaching pension age now should be grateful to him, to his predecessor, Paddy Hillery, to Sean Lemass, to Paddy Lynch, the apostle of "Investment in Education", to the largely anonymous senior civil servants in the Department of Education, to the Christian Brothers, the Catholic bishops, and to the many others who, in a cooperative spirit, virtually without parallel in the Irish experience, made it happen, at least to Intermediate level, within three years.
Nobody, as far as I can find in the media of the time, denounced free education as a "hand-out for the middle classes".
About 30 years later, the Labour Party Minister for Education, Niamh Bhreathnach, abolished university fees (for the most part). In the 1990s, a primary degree was, more or less, in employment terms, the equivalent of a Leaving Certificate in the 1960s. But instead of being ranked with O'Malley, Ms Bhreathnach has been almost universally excoriated for giving "cash hand-outs to the middle classes". The cliché is now so deeply embedded in the hard drives of the commentariat that it surfaces almost weekly (always "middle class", never "middle income").
But if Ms Bhreathnach hadn't taken that brave initiative, many of the children of gardaí, teachers, shop managers,minor civil servants, accountants, journalists and people with similar incomes would not have been given the opportunity to obtain degrees and would now be living abroad.
It is regrettable, if understandable, that spokespersons for some universities call repeatedly for the reintroduction of fees to finance "research".Logically, there is no reason why students studying for a basic degree, in effect an extension of the Leaving Certificate, should finance "research" whose only purpose is publication in a periodical which will be read by virtually nobody.
Perhaps the time has come for the civil servants in the Department of Finance and the Department of Education to revisit "Investment in Education". - Yours etc,
DENIS FAHEY,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 9.