Why third-level fees were abolished in Ireland

Niamh Bhreathnach recounts the decision-making process that led to the end of university fees during her tenure as Minister for Education in the 1990s Why the abolition of fees? it would only benefit those on family incomes A commitment in the Fianna Fail and of £2] ,000 or less. Large numbers of lower Programme for a Partnership middle class parents, already struggling to Government, published in 1993, promised put their children through third level, would that access to third-level education would be lose out totally and access to this new increased during that Government's term of generation of Leaving Cert graduate would office. At a time when the economic climate become nearly impossible. was improving, when graduates were urgently needed to increase our graduate workforce, Abolishing the tax covenant the Government was committed to increasing It was when I examined the figures in the education provision to help us meet that need. report that it emerged just how much the How this could be achieved quickly was my covenant tax relief scheme was costing the challenge as Minister for Education. Exchequer. I realised that I could meet From a personal perspective, the challenge the commitment in the Programme for to increase access to third-level education was Government to give access to third-level driven by my own experience as a primary education fairly quickly if I had access to school teacher, when in the 1960s I taught at "By covenanting funds, managers those tax credits. Of course, the tax revenue Cook Street National School, a school situated that would be saved if the covenant scheme up the road from Trinity College . The were able to put their children was to be abolished had to be ring-fenced children of the Oliver Bond flats would have through university, while their and the total amount used to increase the qualified for free fees and maintenance under block grant and to open the gates to all the existing grants scheme, yet not one had employees could not. Farmers' undergraduates freely. With the support of ever entered the gates of Trinity CoJJege or my Labour Party colleagues, especially that any other third-level institution as a student children were very evident in the ofTanaiste and , the by the time I arrived at the Department of then Minister for Finance, this LabourlFine Education 30 years later. student cohort but not those of Gael/Democratic Left government abolished For them, 1 put in place the Early Start farm labourers." the tax covenant for education expenses and anp Breaking the Cycle initiatives. This year, ring-fenced the savings. The gates had been after a decade of targeted grants, I am hoping opened. Numbers attending third level today these students have graduated to a Leaving little known staff perk at the time. confirm the success of this decision. Certificate class locally and will expect to The extent of the use of covenants outside Of course, I could have done it differently, finish their education down the road at the 5 per cent limit became evident when but politics is the art of the possible and by Trinity College. a study on the schemes by Dr Donal de turning the fmdings of the de Buitleir Report Buitleir, commissioned by my department, on its head within two terms, undergraduate Funding for third-level was completed. The report recommended students in Ireland shared the same access many changes to the existing schemes, such education to third level as their European counterparts. as the inclusion of assets in a reformed grant If education is the key to the individual's But before this success story, let us return scheme. It was difficult to envisage a fair to the 1990s and the outcome of a report I life chances, it surely must be the key to way forward, unless assets could be assessed, our country's future. Today as the Australian commissioned on the Third Level Grants but to suggest new ways of using the tax Scheme. At the time, an extremely mean loans scheme is being reassessed - too costly, system to fund fees was just not viable in the too many reneging on loans - perhaps we third-level grants scheme was in place for tax climate of the time. students deemed in need of help. Those above might consider ways in which our present low Means testing in Ireland has been taxation system, with its many t