THE CABINET will decide on a new system of college tuition charges “within the next two weeks” – but no new fees will be levied until September 2010.
Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe said yesterday the new charges will apply only to new entrants to third level next year.
They will not apply to students who are already attending third-level colleges.
The Minister will bring his recommendation to Cabinet on fees before the April 7th budget.
Officials are now finalising a discussion document which explores a broad range of options including fees, loans and graduate taxes.
While the return of fees is now regarded as inevitable, the Minister has still to decide on the key issue – the threshold above which families become liable for payment.
Sources said yesterday that only the wealthy would be asked to pay fees.
One said: “There is no question of imposing a further burden on people who cannot afford to pay fees.”
Mr O’Keeffe has said a new system of “family proofing” will accompany the new charges.
This, he said, will look at the overall financial position of each family in the light of budgetary and other changes.
The Minister has acknowledged that there is “only so much pain” that the average family can bear with income levies, tax hikes, the public sector levy and pay cuts.
Sources stress the Minister will be “fully briefed” on the tax changes in the forthcoming budget before making his recommendation to Cabinet on student charges.
The Minister has said that all those who can afford it will be asked to pay fees.
He has pointed repeatedly to last year’s Bank of Ireland wealth report which detailed the increasing band of millionaires (over 33,000 in total) in the State.
On RTÉ’s Morning Ireland yesterday he said: “There are people within this economy who can well afford to pay fees or to make a contribution, and I feel it would be justified to ask those people who are earning quite substantial amounts of money to make a contribution.”
The Minister is expected to opt for a mix of fees and graduate taxes/loans which will be linked to income.
One education source said: “There is no big new idea. The Minister will choose the option best suited to the Irish situation from a range of funding schemes in operation elsewhere.”
Two months ago, the senior academic who established the Australian higher education contribution scheme briefed senior officials in Dublin.
Bruce Chapman pioneered the much-imitated system where students repay the cost of their higher education through the taxation system once they reach an income threshold.
The Minister is also anxious – as part of his fees proposals – to expand the supports available to disadvantaged students.
He also wants to boost the access programmes to third level.
Some funding generated by the new fees regime is likely to be diverted to those access programmes.
