UCD Anti-Fees Protest

national | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Monday October 06, 2008 14:55 by Gaz B stopfees at gmail dot com

UCD students will be holding a protest against the proposed reintroduction of fees at a Law Soc debate due to be addressed by Fianna Fail Minister of State, Martin Mansergh. Minister for education Batt O'Keefe has already stated his support for the reintroduction of fees while UCD President Hugh Brady and the Irish Universities have advocated an income-dependent loans and top-up fees system.

According to the OECD's Education at a Glance report, "only two countries, Greece and The Slovak Republic invest less as a percentage of GDP in education than Ireland. The government has already shown that it had no interest in adequately funding education during the Celtic Tiger. Any revenue now gained from fees will not be reinvested in education - it will go towards getting the government out of the excehquer crisis it created. A large chunk of the registration fee already goes directly back into the exchequer rather than into college services.

An article in todays Irish Times now suggests that the government will attempt to introduce fees through the backdoor by almost doubling the registration fee.

The reintroduction of fees or a graduate tax would only create an additional hurdle to entering third level education whilst doing nothing to address educational disadvantage. Education is a right, not a commodity, and should be fully funded through the taxation system. Don't believe the arguement that fees would only be introduced 'for the rich'. The number of students required to pay fees would increase yearly as the government seeks to reduce direct investment in education.

Investment in grants and early intervention schemes at primary and secondary level is the way to combat educational disasvantage and to widen access to third level education - not fees and privatisation.

For too long we have had aour backs against the wall fighting the step-by-step privatisation of education. We need to start forcing the government to respond top our agenda rather than simply responding to theirs through sending out the standard, "this is bad, I'm against it", template emails and letters to TDs and the media. Posing in a photograpgh outside the Dail once ayear has traditionally accomplished nothing except the massaigning of USI bureaucrats egos as they stand in front of an army of extras for the cameras. Waiting around until the next election is not going to solve the problems we currently face. We can't rely on anyone else to solve these issues on our behalf - we have to get active and fight these issues ourselves.

In 2003 the proposed reintroduction of feres was defeated by mass student action - it can be defeated again but it will require more action than passively writing emails and letters to TDs. Complaining about fees, library cutbacks and the introduction of student health service charges is not good enough - we need a substantial campaign to fight both fees and cutbacks while pushing our own agenda of free ducaction and a properly funded education system at all levels onto the government.

If you want to defend free education and oppose cutbacks & hikes in the registration fee, come along to the protest. Meet outside the UCD library on Tuesday October 7th at 6:30 pm.

Email [email protected] for more info on upcoming events and protests.