Third Level Fees 

The Young Greens played a huge role in stopping the reintroduction of third level fees in the South of Ireland. We pushed the Green Party to secure a commitment that there would no introduction of a student "contribution" in the renewed programme for government.

We argued that the introduction of student loans would have cost the government hundreds of millions to implement, just to keep services at the same poor level. At a time when we are borrowing €400m per week, now is not the time to implement a flawed scheme. Secondly, neither the introduction of student loans or fees would have made universities better off. It would merely have changed who pays for third level education. There would be no increase in funding. Lastly and most importantly, research by the OECD and ESRI shows that students from lower socio-economic groups are debt adverse. The introduction of student loans would have introduced a further barrier to participation in higher education at a time when we need to build a knowledge economy.

Northern Ireland

In the North, Greens were involved in the students’ unions campaigns to prevent an increase in tuition fees. Against what seemed impossible odds, thousands of students took to the streets over a full year of campaigning and secured a commitment from the NI Executive to freeze tuition fees and stop £40 million in proposed education cuts, saving hundreds of jobs in Higher Education.

Despite this, the battle still goes on to prevent further education cuts and to push to restore free education in Northern Ireland. The Young Greens will as always be strongly involved in this campaign.

Photo shows members of the Queens University Belfast Greens joined by Green Party MLA Steven Agnew protesting the proposed removal of the fees cap in the UK.