ATTEMPTS BY the Government to reintroduce third-level education fees will be punished by student voters in this summer’s local and European elections, the president of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) warned yesterday.
Shane Kelly said that, should Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe put forward proposals to charge or tax students, the union would tell its 200,000 members to to vote against the Government parties in the June 5th elections.
Proposals that could see the return of fees or the introduction of a student loans system are expected to be presented to the Cabinet shortly.
In an address to the USI’s annual congress, which began at the Bettystown Court Hotel in Bettystown, Co Meath, yesterday, Mr Kelly said the move represented an “unprecedented attack” on the students of Ireland.
“We will not be made scapegoats,” he said. “For it is only when we demonstrate our ability to deliver our members to the ballot box that we will stop being seen as the easy target.”
The union, Mr Kelly said, will announce a major voter registration and voter mobilisation drive over the next fortnight. It previously stated that it had registered some 30,000 new voters during this college year.
Mr Kelly said that since third-level fees were abolished in 1996, Ireland has witnessed a surge in the numbers of students entering third-level education.
“In 1980 this access rate stood at 20 per cent of 17- and 18-year-olds,” he said.
“While in 2004 it had reached almost 55 per cent. That is the value of free fees.”
The USI congress continues until Thursday.
