Student Fees still in the melting pot

According to todays Irish indo the department of education are still researching the student fees issue. They have some new research from Australia. According to the article "It is generally believed that the new third level fees structure in Ireland will be sculpted along the lines of the Australian model of 'deferred' loans, which allows students to delay repayment of their loans until they are employed and earning a certain level of income" - so according to the Indo the decision has been made - i better tell the cabinet they are off the hook!

Seriously, this development of an 'Irish model which is being tailored to Irish circumstances' amounts to nothing more than an extra tax, a graduate tax. The Australian model is widely believed to have created more problems for the Aussie government than ever anticipated. Our shower here have recieved a new report which, over the course of 272 pages, requests a whopping 46 new recommendations for a major overhaul of this loans scheme. This is the system we are trying to copy?!! Am I the only one seeing a major problem with this?

Yesterday, the government released poor fiscal figures for the first two months of the year, we are €2bn behind where we were envisaged to be. Enda Kenny on RTE's Morning Ireland stated that the figures he recieved from the Department of Finance this morning, the Government would need to find €5bn in spending cuts and tax increases. The overhaul of the Australian system that appears to be the favoured approach for student fees will cost the Australian Government an estimated $5.7 billion!

For anyone saying that this form of student fees / tax is there to get us out of an economic blackspot is naive and needs to think it through. If this system is brought back - current students are unlikely to be affected (afterall our current free education costs €1500 to access) but rather the incoming second level students. Given that the majority of college courses take 4 years to run and given the poor chances of graduates getting employment strainght after graduating - why aren't people asking - when will we get a return from this system? Its very basis is flawed. Students, as they do in Australia, will leave the country after graduation to find work in other coutries where having a degree does not penalise you.

Batt O'Keefe and his department do not give me any reasoning to believe that anything they will produce will be fair and just, take a look at the savage cuts they have made to the primary level education in this country. The cabinet must defer any decision on fees when it is brought to the cabinet table. Any snap decision by cabinet would end up hurting our 'knowledge based economy'. The government has been well served by the graduates who have graduated under the free fees scheme. It is time for the government to bail out the knowledge bank in this country i.e. us - the young people, who undoubtedly will be left with a high tax regieme for the rest of their working lives due to the incompetence of the government.