“Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe said he would bring proposals relating to third-level fees to Cabinet ‘very shortly’. He said he wanted ‘to finalise a number of issues regarding the finality of the report, and I will put it before my Cabinet colleagues as soon as it is completed’. He was replying to Fine Gael spokesman Brian Hayes who had sought a specific date from the Minister. Mr O’Keeffe said the Cabinet had asked him to furnish it with a report on ‘student commitment, which will look at fees, loans, a combination of the two, means-testing and all the other issues’. He would bring all these to Cabinet so it could reach an informed decision on the third-level sector into the future and what the student contribution should or should not be …” (more)
[Michael O’Regan, Irish Times, 26 March]