Naomi Sebastine (second left) with other members of TU Dublin SU at the Fight the Fees Protest outside Leinster House
Shock, outrage over student fees going back to €3,000
The president of TU Dublin student union has expressed shock and outrage over the government’s decision to revert student fees back to €3,000.
Minster for Further and Higher Education James Lawless last week announced that student fees would revert to the full cost of €3,000 a year.
A €1,000 reduction had been brought in for the last three Budgets as part of temporary ‘cost-of-living’ packages.
Fees are among a range of costs that must revert to full price, according to Minister Lawless.
The Fianna Fáil minister’s comments were contradicted by Fine Gael leader and Tánaiste Simon Harris, who only days later told his party that “no decision” had been made to return student contribution fees to their full price.
The news, and the uncertainty, has come as a “betrayal” to students, according to TU Dublin’s Student Union president Naomi Sebastine.
“It felt like a bomb went off,” Naomi, who last year served as the representative for TUD’s Tallaght campus.
“Because it was promised – they specifically said before they got into government that they wouldn’t bring it back up.
“I think we all expected them to follow through on that, so for them to then be like ‘oh no, this was just a once off’, it’s like, okay, what’s the reason?”
Despite being off for the summer, Naomi said they’ve seen significant opposition from students on social media.
“People are not happy – there is definitely outrage across the board about fees going up because we are in a cost-of-living crisis, and for the fees to go up during that, it’s not helpful for anyone.
Naomi, along with her fellow TUD union reps and other members of Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn (AMLÉ) – formerly known as the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) – took part in a protest outside Leinster House on Tuesday evening over the decision to raise the fees.
“It’s already not looking great for students,” she continued.
“When you look at the European Union or Europe as a whole, we are the second most expensive country in terms of fees, in terms of Europe, and then in the EU we have the highest fees.
“There’s a housing crisis. We need to figure that out, and now you’re trying to make people’s lives harder by increasing the fees.
“It’s putting it out of reach for students.”
