“The student march against fees yesterday was pretty impressive, particularly given the kind of weather we’ve been having this week. It was sad to hear Fergal Keane on DriveTime acknowledging that nobody in the Dáil cares what students say because they don’t vote and certainly don’t vote as a block. Mary Wilson’s assertion that their parents do vote may well be the reason FF have avoided bringing fees back sooner. One thing that really struck me, reading about the march and the likelihood of an announcement coming quite soon about fees for September, is that today is the 5th of February. Four days after the CAO deadline. Students all over the country filled in their forms and the majority probably weren’t thinking about fees when they did. Fees change everything. Batt is edging towards some sort of loans system from what I can see in the papers, but there’s a basic calculation to be made that students won’t have made last weekend …” (more)
[Sharona’s Shambles, 5 February]