A backwards step

IT is almost two decades since the then Labour Party education minister, Niamh Bhreathnach, abolished tuition fees for third-level education. By so doing, she changed the lives of tens of thousands of school leavers who would previously have been deprived of the opportunity to benefit from going to college.

Regrettably, the introduction of a registration levy in recent times has amounted to the return of college fees by another name. Within months of coming to power, Ruairi Quinn reneged on a pre-election promise not to increase this charge. He also refused to rule out doing likewise on similar commitments on reintroducing college fees and other student charges.

Now Patrick Prendergast, the handsomely rewarded provost of Trinity College Dublin, has come out in favour of bringing back fees. Should this come to pass, the parlous state of the economy notwithstanding, it would be a deeply retrograde step.

At a time when the nation most needs its brightest and best to be educated to the highest possible standard, it would be unconscionable to in effect exclude vast swathes of the population from bettering themselves.