Former student leader at CIT slams Quinn ‘U-turn’

The Education Minister’s decision to hike college registration fees was a ‘U-turn’ on a pre-election Labour pledge that had inspired many students to register to vote, according to a former Students’ Union president at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT).

John Lane, who led last year’s voter registration campaign at CIT said he was “appalled” at reports that the student contribution charge, which was increased by €250 in December’s budget, was expected to rise further to €3,000 by 2013.

Mr Lane insisted that it was the pre-election stance of Minister Ruairí Quinn and other Labour figures against third level fees and increases in registration charges, that had made the CIT student voter registration campaign such a success.

“Over two weeks, we registered over 500 students and informed them of the issues that mattered to them most, and each political party’s stance on these. This gave Labour great publicity amongst students as they were the first, and ultimately the only, political party to sign a pledge,” said Mr Lane.

“I honestly believe that this had a huge impact on the voting patterns of students,” he said. Mr Lane said students in receipt of maintenance grants would be unaffected by the registration charge increase, but those whose family income was above the threshold would be “hit severely”.

“Family income is counted as income from parents, personal income from part-time and seasonal work, and the income of any other person with an income living in the same household,” he said.

He called for a payment system to be set up for those paying the registration fee. “I think we are creating a generation who are going to see it as the norm to be in arrears of payments due,” he said. “This is placing undue stress on families, but what other choices are we giving young people? The jobs aren’t there to ‘take a year out’ and decide what they want. If young people don’t access education quickly after college, they are going either into low skilled, low paid jobs, or the dole queue. They are disheartened and feel of little value to the community and society as a whole,” Mr Lane added.