FEES WILL HURT WORKING FAMILIES NOT THE SUPER-RICH
In a statement the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) has said it will participate in today’s national student demonstration against government plans to re-introduce student fees.
PBPA rejected as “cynical; and “dishonest” government propaganda on the issue of fees and said that proposals to double third level registration fees or at some point to fully re-introduce student tuition fees will hurt working families not the super-rich.
PBPA said that the way to deal with unjustifiable subsidies to the super-wealthy was to dramatically increase income tax for those earning in excess of €100,000 and impose other wealth taxes, rather than introduce fees which would only hurt working families whose incomes were marginally over the thresholds to qualify for third level grants.
PBPA said education was a right not a privilige and that students were showing the way in taking to the streets against the government’s unjust and suicidal economic policies.
Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance said: “Today’s protest is a vitally important. If the government gets away with doubling the registration fees or fully reintroducing tuition fees, it will once again be hard-working families that will pay the price not the super-wealthy as they falsely claim.
Just as the government employed cynical divide and rule tactics to scapegoat public sector workers they are now doing the same with students. They are falsely claiming that fees will only hurt the families of privileged rich kids, when in reality the super-rich will always have enough to send their kids to university, no matter how high fees are.
The people who will be hurt by fees – and many will literally be disbarred from third level education if fees rise further – are the sons and daughters of average income working families, whose earnings are just above the qualifying threshold for grants.
It will be precisely the same workers who have been savaged with levies and other cuts, and who are already crippled with mortgages they can barely pay, who will hit if registration fees are doubled or full fees are introduced.
The government’s claims that somehow fees are a way of removing subsidies to the super-rich are utterly cynical and dishonest. If they really wished to deal with income inequality and claw back some of the huge wealth accumulated by the super-wealthy in this country, they would dramatically increase income taxes on those earning in excess of €100,000 a year.
For example, imposing a 70 per cent tax band for earnings over €100,000 would yield over €2 billion in extra revenue for the state each year. Wealth levies and the closing of tax-loop-holes directed at the multi millionaires and billionaires in this country would also yield several billion a year in new tax revenues. Crucially, ending the criminal bail-out of private banks and their bondholders, whose greed and speculation wrecked this economy, would dramatically improve the country’s financial situation and free up money to invest in education and jobs.
Education is a right not a privilge. For the government to attack the principle of free education is both unjust and economically suicidal. The students are absolutely right to protest today and one only hopes that other sectors of Irish society who are being unjustly asked to bail-out bankers and Ireland’s super-wealthy elites will soon join them on the streets.”
For more info/confirmation:
Richard Boyd Barrett 086-7814520
