Third level fees row looks set to rumble on for a while

Good morning.

The issue of third level fees has always been incendiary in Irish politics. When Minister for Higher Education James Lawless mused on Sunday that the elimination of cost-of-living supports, as ordained by the party leaders and the budget ministers after three years of multi-billion euro one-off giveaways, would mean effective increases to college fees, he lit a political fuse that continues to fizzle.

Fine Gael, ever concerned about looking after the people who pay for (almost) everything, went into apoplexy at the prospect of a €1,000 increase in third level fees. It pointed, not unreasonably, to the Programme for Government commitment to reduce fees. Lawless, for his part, noted that it was the leaders of the Government who decided to take away the €1,000 reduction in fees of recent years, and all the other cost-of-living supports.

There are a few things going on here at the same time. The Government is adjusting to the post-election, post-inflation-crisis reality of returning to something like normal budgeting. In truth, the economic conditions should really have meant an end to one-off giveaways last year. But there was an election to be won.

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So in a way, this is part of the post-election hangover. It is being experienced differently by both major parties of the Coalition. There are a few reasons this finds its expression in a political row. The most politically dangerous one is that the respective positions are true reflections of how each party sees itself – Fine Gael, the defenders of the squeezed middle who pay for everything and deserve a break; Fianna Fail, more social democratic, prepared to weight benefits towards those who need them most. As evidenced by the reluctance of the party leaders to get involved, this is not an existential row for the coalition. But it is a real one. And it will run for a while.

Two watery stories in the paper this morning.

Kevin O’Sullivan reports that half a million people live in areas still with a risk of undrinkable water, according to the EPA’s annual report.

Meanwhile, at the Oireachtas Budgetary Oversight Committee, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council – the Government’s budget watchdog – told deputies and senators that Ireland’s water infrastructure is now one of the main constraints on the economy, limiting the supply of housing and other infrastructure. “Ireland is a very heavy user of water and that’s why we’re struggling to keep up,” Ifac chief economist Niall Conroy told the committee. If only it rained more.

Slow bicycle race latest: PBP’s Paul Murphy says that if there is going to be a united left candidate for the presidency, then the left will need to unite. Yup.

Farewell then, US televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who has gone to his, er, eternal reward at the age of 90.

As our obituary puts it with commendable sobriety, “The Louisiana native was best known for being a captivating Pentecostal preacher with a massive following before being caught on camera with a sex worker in New Orleans in 1988, one of a string of major TV preachers brought down in the 1980s and 1990s by sex scandals.” Despite everything, you have to love America.

Poor old Keir Starmer. After a backbench revolt, he only survived after a humiliating climbdown on welfare reforms. It’s not much fun being in government if you’ve no money. Irish politicians take note.

Best reads

Kathy Sheridan on Kneecap: that’s showbusiness, folks.

Paul Gosling on the dysfunction of Stormont. “If the Irish Government comprises adults,” he writes, “their equivalents in the North often seem like rowdy teenagers – more focused on arguing and scoring points than on reaching compromise, consensus and the best solutions.”

Miriam Lord is also wading into the waters of third level fees.

And Róisín Ingle on the joy of getting married with your children present.

Playbook

The Taoiseach continues to be Big in Japan, with a series of engagements today.

Back home there’s a sharp start at 9am with topical issues. Leaders’ Questions at (high) noon; later there’s statements on the Middle East and the final stages of the Defamation Bill; weekly votes at 10.15 this evening.

The Seanad sees statements on Sea Fisheries as well as couple of pieces of private members legislation – one on scoliosis treatment and one on domestic violence.

It’s a manically busy day at the committees with several meetings of interest on subjects ranging from the controversies at the Arts Council (Minister Patrick O’Donovan is in), the Occupied Territories Bill, waiting lists in hospitals (hello, Bernard Gloster), delays in the planning process and dog control and sheep worrying. The sheep aren’t the only ones who are worried.

Full details of the day in the Oireachtas here.

In diplomatic news, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Harris TD will host the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at Government Buildings today. A “visual media opportunity only” for the press: the Sheikh is not too keen on questions. You can read the report on human rights in Qatar by the NGO Human Rights Watch here. Great lads, the Qataris.