Tipperary TD Martin Browne says education must be genuinely free and accessible to everyone.
The Cashel based Sinn Féin Deputy was speaking ahead of a party motion on the issue, which will be debated in the Dáil this evening.
They are calling on government to cancel its planned increases in student fees and to expand the Free Book Scheme to include secondary schools.
Martin Browne says the Government needs to act now in relation to expenses such as school books which are estimated to be an average of €210 for a second level student.
“That’s hard enough for a person with one child but if you have two or three siblings in a school that extra cost every year is putting massive pressure on families. These are costs that should be borne by the State at this stage. We have Government Ministers telling us about our €65 billion of a surplus and for small money we can take pressure off of parents and children that are going into secondary school and higher education. That needs to be done, and needs to be done this year.”
Deputy Browne says the increasing cost of student accommodation is just one of the reasons why the Government should hold off on the planned €500 increase in fees.
He fears it may deter some people from going on to higher education.
“Its just gone beyond students accessing – if they can find it in the first place. And this is one of the serious problems is that the access isn’t there at the minute. But even if it is the prices that they’re being asked to pay is putting it beyond a lot of people.
And lets be honest this is something that we don’t need – that students start dropping out of university because of costs. That is totally wrong in our view.”
