Why third-level feeswere abolished in Ireland

Niamh Bhreathnach recounts the decision-making process that led to theend 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 incomesA commitment in the Fianna Fail and of £2] ,000 or less. Large numbers of lowerLabour Party Programme for a Partnership middle class parents, already struggling toGovernment, published in 1993, promised put their children through third level, wouldthat access to third-level education would be lose out totally and access to this newincreased during that Government's term of generation of Leaving Cert graduate wouldoffice. At a time when the economic climate become nearly impossible.was improving, when graduates were urgentlyneeded to increase our graduate workforce,the Government was committed to increasingeducation provision to help us meet that need.How this could be achieved quickly was mychallenge as Minister for Education.

From a personal perspective, the challengeto increase access to third-level education wasdriven by my own experience as a primaryschool teacher, when in the 1960s I taught atCook Street National School, a school situatedup the road from Trinity College Dublin. Thechildren of the Oliver Bond flats would havequalified for free fees and maintenance underthe existing grants scheme, yet not one hadever entered the gates of Trinity CoJJege orany other third-level institution as a studentby the time I arrived at the Department ofEducation 30 years later.

For them, 1 put in place the Early Startanp Breaking the Cycle initiatives. This year,after a decade of targeted grants, I am hopingthese students have graduated to a LeavingCertificate class locally and will expect tofinish their education down the road atTrinity College.

Funding for third-leveleducationBut before this success story, let us returnto the 1990s and the outcome of a report Icommissioned on the Third Level GrantsScheme. At the time, an extremely meanthird-level grants scheme was in place forstudents deemed in need of help. Those abovethe grant ceiling were mainly paid for by theirparents. A block grant was paid to all stateuniversities. The Regional Technical Colleges(RTC) sector benefited from ED funding.To help fee-paying parents of students over18 years of age, a tax covenant schemeexisted whereby immediate family memberscould offset 5 per cent of university feesagainst their income tax. But because no suchlimits applied to the covenants claimed byother relatives or friends it became relativelyeasy to fund student fees 100 per cent. Bycovenanting funds, managers were able toput their children through university, whiletheir employees could not. Farmers' childrenwere very evident in the student cohort but notthose of fann labourers. And many universitystaff were covenanting the cost of fees whileavailing of free tuition for their children, a~I

"By covenanting funds, managerswere able to put their childrenthrough university, while theiremployees could not. Farmers'

children were very evident in the

student cohort but not those offarm labourers."

little known staff perk at the time.The extent of the use of covenants outside

the 5 per cent limit became evident whena study on the schemes by Dr Donal deBuitleir, commissioned by my department,was completed. The report recommendedmany changes to the existing schemes, suchas the inclusion of assets in a reformed grantscheme. It was difficult to envisage a fairway forward, unless assets could be assessed,but to suggest new ways of using the taxsystem to fund fees was just not viable in thetax climate of the time.

Means testing in Ireland has beennotoriously open to abuse. The de Buitleirreport adequately demonstrated this. If theexisting covenant scheme had been abolishedand the total savings redirected through centralfunding to the grants scheme, I estimated that

"If education is the key to theindividual's life chances, it surelymust be the key to our country:sfuture. Today, perhaps we might

consider ways in which our present

low taxation system, with its manytax shelters, could help,"

Abolishing the tax covenantIt was when I examined the figures in thereport that it emerged just how much thecovenant tax relief scheme was costing theExchequer. I realised that I could meetthe commitment in the Programme forGovernment to give access to third-leveleducation fairly quickly if I had access tothose tax credits. Of course, the tax revenuethat would be saved if the covenant schemewas to be abolished had to be ring-fencedand the total amount used to increase theblock grant and to open the gates to allundergraduates freely. With the support ofmy Labour Party colleagues, especially thatofTanaiste Dick Spring and Ruairi Quinn, thethen Minister for Finance, this LabourlFineGael/Democratic Left government abolishedthe tax covenant for education expenses andring-fenced the savings. The gates had beenopened. Numbers attending third level todayconfirm the success of this decision.

Of course, I could have done it differently,but politics is the art of the possible and byturning the fmdings of the de Buitleir Reporton its head within two terms, undergraduatestudents in Ireland shared the same accessto third level as their European counterparts.If education is the key to the individual'slife chances, it surely must be the key toour country's future. Today as the Australianloans scheme is being reassessed - too costly,too many reneging on loans - perhaps wemight consider ways in which our present lowtaxation system, with its many t<L,(shelters,could help. Unfashionable though it is tosay it, we are a low taxation economy, lying28th in the OECD table on expenditure oneducation. Promises by ministers to "continueinvesting heavily in education" should bechallenged, most especially by a third-levelsector that is in need of more investment.

Niamh Bhreathnach was Minister forEducation from 1993 to 1997, serving intwo governments, Fianna Fail/Labour andFine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left. AsMinister she inter alia published the IrrstWhite Paper on Education "Charting ourEducation Future"; she initiated specificprogrammes for disadvantaged areas, andadded Social, Personal and Health (SPHE)and civics as an examination subject to thecurriculum.

October 2008, Issue No. 51 _