Conor Reddy is a People Before Profit Councillor and co-founder of the Postgraduate Workers’ Organisation, the national union for PhDs. Conor has a long-standing record as a student activist.
Yesterday, Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless said that "as things stand" third level students will have to pay €1,000 extra in fees later this year.
Councillor Reddy said, "Education is a public good and it should be free to all. So it is shocking to hear the Minister say that third level student fees are to increase later this year.
"We have more than enough resources in this state to deliver free education. People Before Profit have costed free education in every one of our alternative budgets for over a decade, and we have shown how it can be done.
"Ireland invests less in education than any other OECD country - about 10% less per student than the OECD average, and funding at third level is just half the OECD average. That is why Ireland currently has the highest third level fees in the EU.
"The €307 million gap in higher education funding needs to be closed, but that should be paid for from the fiscal surplus and taxes on corporate profits and multimillionaires. It should not be done by raising fees to €3,000, the highest in Europe.
"In addition to abolishing fees, we need to expand permanent staffing and pay PhDs properly, with full recognition as employees, to get education working for everyone. This would give all those teaching in our Higher Education Institutions security and a living wage, while improving standards for students.
"We also need to expand courses massively, to meet the needs of our growing population. There is huge additional need for courses in areas such as medicine, therapies, architecture and planning.
"A student living at home will have costs of over €6,000 per year. If renting it will be over €16,000. To make free education a meaningful reality, we also need quality, affordable state delivered student accommodation, higher maintenance grants and lower thresholds to get them”.