Labour has rejected the claim by the Minister, Mr Dempsey, that the abolition of third-level fees was a "Labour ruse" to court middle-class support. The party said that the idea first appeared in Fianna Fáil's 1992 election manifesto.
In a statement yesterday responding to Mr Dempsey's Seanad speech on the issue, Labour's education spokeswoman, Ms Jan O'Sullivan, said that when the then Minister for Education, Ms Niamh Bhreathnach, announced the plan, it was widely welcomed by Fianna Fáil deputies.
She quoted a July 1994 news report in which the current Minister for Health, Mr Martin, backed the plan and said it would improve access to third-level education. "It formed a central plank of our manifesto in the last general election", Mr Martin had said. "Seamus Brennan, when he was Minister for Education, prepared a fully-costed plan which would have allowed for the abolition of fees."
In his Seanad speech on Wednesday night, Mr Dempsey claimed Labour had pushed through the abolition of fees because "it hoped that it would help it to retain the various seats it had won in the professional class areas in 1992". He said that the Rainbow Government's decision was far from unanimous and that the then Democratic Left leader, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, had opposed it.
According to Mr Dempsey, Mr De Rossa had believed it was a "regressive decision" which would do nothing to help disadvantaged groups. "I do not often agree with Proinsias De Rossa MEP, but he was right about that. Fine Gael was also lukewarm, but accepted the policy as the price of keeping Labour happy."
He said the current Labour Party leader and deputy leader were former Democratic Left members and had not yet explained their "complete and total reversal of policy - they are now denouncing even the examination of changes to a policy they once felt was regressive and against the interests of the disadvantaged. They have been speaking out a good deal lately on supposed policy U-turns, but this is one that they will not say anything about".
He said Labour had claimed the move would "throw open the gates" of third-level education. This had not happened. Instead, the money to pay for the free fees initiative had been taken from the schools budget in successive years.
Fianna Fáil, in contrast, had begun a whole range of initiatives to improve access to third-level education by disadvantaged groups, he went on. "We introduced the first ever scheme to help welfare-dependent families access third level. The top-up grants scheme goes only to students from these families and is today helping more than 7,000 students. We also introduced funding for area-based initiatives to increase participation rates. These initiatives are tailored to local needs and can help with much more than just fees and grants."
Labour, in contrast - "the party of Connolly, led by a former member of a far-left Moscow-supported party" - had announced "that they will mount the barricades in defence of the right of the most affluent sections of society to receive everything for free".
However, Ms O'Sullivan yesterday accused Mr Dempsey of "trying to rewrite political history in his attempt to justify his plan to reintroduce third-level fees". She said Democratic Left had in fact welcomed the plan to abolish fees when first announced and had agreed to put it into the Rainbow's Programme for Government.
Fianna Fáil had welcomed it, too. "Of course, people are entitled to change their minds on an issue as complex as this, but Minister Dempsey should stop trying to mislead the public."
The Independent TD for Kerry South, Mr Jackie Healy-Rae, said yesterday that he has had "indications" that he and his fellow Independent group of TDs may be asked to support and vote with Fianna Fáil. He said that the situation was changing daily. There was no formal proposal on the table.
However, he was "talking to people", and there were "indications" that his support might be sought, he said.