“Reform of the tax covenanting system introduced in the mid 1990s to coincide with the abolition of undergraduate fees at third level has brought about tens of millions of euro in savings for the government in the intervening years, new figures have revealed. However, while the savings achieved by reform of the system would “help” with the introduction of free third-level fees, a spokeswoman for the Department of Finance has confirmed that they were not ‘ringfenced’ for this purpose. …” (more)
[John Downes, Sunday Tribune, 26 October]