Liam Fitzgerald (Fianna Fail)

We have different points of view, not just across the parties in Government but within parties, for which I make no apologies to anyone. This is a fundamental debate not just about the future of education, including third level education, but about the future for our country, based on surveys carried out on future skills needs over the next ten to 15 years, surveys carried out by eminent educationalists and sociologists on the socio-economic profile of the participation rates at third level and the clearly stated sentiments expressed by eminent experts in the area of third level education on the abominably negative effect of the free fees initiative. Perhaps I will deal with that matter before I deal with the glaring inconsistencies in the performance of the main Opposition parties over the last few years in relation to this issue.

The free fees initiative has contributed absolutely nothing to promoting equality of access to third level education. It has favoured the higher income groups, a fact to which educational experts almost unanimously attest. It has facilitated those with the most resources to buy their way into further educational advantage. Professor Malcolm Skilbeck, a leading expert in educational policy, said the abolition of fees gave a fantastic subsidy to the middle and upper classes. He said it helped to underpin the elitist nature of third level education in the Republic.

It is strange to note the failure of the Labour Party to address the creeping elitism in education and its seeming abandonment of the needs and concerns of the lower income groups, the poor and the disadvantaged.