Students and Opposition politicians marched on the Department of Education headquarters in Dublin yesterday in protest at the recently announced 69 per cent increase in capitation charges.
The Union of Students in Ireland said the action was the start of a "persistent and escalating" campaign which would continue until the decision was reversed.
Its president, Mr Colm Jordan, criticised the Minister for Education's failure to consult students before approving the increase, but said they would be seeking a meeting with Mr Dempsey before deciding on further tactics. About 100 students, mostly officers from the affiliated unions, took part in the protest. They were joined by TDs from most of the Opposition parties. After releasing 69 rubber ducks on the River Liffey, they marched to the Department offices in Marlborough Street, where a letter demanding a meeting with Mr Dempsey was handed to an official.
Addressing the crowd, Mr Jordan said the rise in capitation had been announced without any warning but would have "massive repercussions for students", who would be forced either to borrow the money from parents and financial institutions, or raise it through working, and thereby spend even less time on their studies.
Labour's education spokesman Mr Joe Costello TD told protesters his party fully supported them in opposing "this savage increase".
While those from families on very low incomes were not required to pay the charges, he added, the rise from €396 to €670 would be a major burden on middle-income families, especially those with more than one child at college.
It was an attack not just on free education, "but on the right to education", Mr Costello said.
The Green Party's Mr Paul Gogarty said the increase was a regressive act and a move to reintroduce fees by the "back door". It would affect not only the students involved but also Ireland's prospects of developing a skilled and innovative workforce, to compensate for the higher costs here compared with Eastern Europe and Asia.
"In the future we will be primarily competing in terms of our intellectual assets rather than our cost base. This half-baked cost-cutting exercise is sending out the wrong message to existing and prospective third-level students, who are vital to our future sustainable economic development."
Mr Joe Higgins, of the Socialist Party, said there would have been thousands of students marching yesterday but for the fact that they were currently working in "London, Chicago, New York and elsewhere" to get the money to continue their studies when they came back. He compared the increase to Fianna Fáil's tactics after the 1977 general election, when a new "registration charge" for cars gradually replaced the motor tax it had abolished.
The Sinn Féin TD Mr Sean Crowe also took part in the protest, and Fine Gael's education spokeswoman Ms Olwyn Enright sent a message of support.
