David Norris (Independent)

I raise this matter of concern to pharmacy students and, in particular, the sophister students. I raised an issue regarding their situation in the previous session. It concerns the increase of their registration fee to €1,500. The fee seems extraordinarily high and the deadline for payment is also rather harsh. I anticipate the Minister of State's response. He will start by saying that the money is spent on admissions, registration, student records, examinations, academic quality assurance and so on. I made an inquiry earlier and this is what is being passed on to me and to the students. It is a very bureaucratic reply and does not take cognisance of the hardship suffered by the students concerned. The duties and services provided do not really seem to justify the level of fees. They talk about 170 plus graduates, which is moving up to 200, so we are getting close to €3 million in registration fees. That is an enormous amount simply for organising a few examination papers and quality assurance, which is a vague phrase.

One must bear in mind that we are in a period of considerable stringency. I just heard on my little transistor radio that the Government will introduce a mini-budget at the end of the month. The Minister of State may not even be aware of that. I do not know whether he is, but this has just been announced because of the considerable shortfall in taxes. More people will be put out of work, perhaps including some parents of these students. We are in a situation of considerable economic stringency, yet the response of the regulator is to increase these fees enormously and place a very difficult timescale on students to pay them. As the Minister of State well knows, regulators are under fire at the moment. The students request that the amount of the fees be significantly reduced.

Under the Pharmacy Act, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland's council has the right and the power to waive, vary or reduce these fees. The Minister must draw to the attention of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland and the regulator the difficult economic situation faced by these students. This comes just at a time when the students are facing their final year exams.

The fee is payable in March 2009 in order to allow them to commence their pre-registration year in October 2009. They feel a strong grievance about the late notification of the fee. I was approached first by a senior academic in the school of pharmacy at Trinity College, Dublin, and then by the students. Students in Trinity College, Dublin, and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland were informed of the matter only on 5 December 2008. Students at University College, Cork, have not been told yet officially and have heard it on the grapevine through the actions of the other students. That is an intolerable discourtesy to students. The fee is being yanked up and a harsh deadline is being imposed but the students are not even informed about it. That is disgraceful. The students are entitled to an apology from the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland. The society ought to have a little more human feeling.

When these students began their courses in 2006, they had to pay €250 for preliminary registration to the previous incarnation of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland. The Pharmacy Act 2007 states no fee shall be payable by students for enrolment. Why should they then have to pay twice? Why can the 2006 fee not be taken into account? It makes a farce of the whole idea of free fees, a stupid and ugly phrase which is an oxymoron.

The students have asked me to seek clarification on certain issues with the society's council. They want to know the amount of fee charged this year in comparison to previous years. They want the payment for preliminary registration on the roll of students and a refund or further reduction pre-registration fee to take into account this money. They want clarification on the charging of both a pre-registration fee and an examination fee. They want the provision of a document outlining the purpose of any fee to be charged and for what it is to be used.

I have anticipated the Minister of State's response on this. I am not convinced that it will take €3 million to do the silly things about which we have been told. The students also want an assurance that once the fee is charged, no new fees can be added during the training year. The students have also made the point that in principle they are prepared to pay their way, but they need to know for what the fee is and a justification of the amount. They also do not want to be served by a late notice of the fee.