Third level students are set to be betrayed by the government in tomorrow\u2019s Budget, with a cut of just \u20ac500 in college fees expected to be announced, according to Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins.<\/p>\n
Deputy Cummins, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on further and higher education, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents and their families had become accustomed to a \u20ac1,000 reduction in fees in recent years. They had a realistic expectation this would be continued in this year\u2019s Budget as part of the Programme for Government commitment to phase out the student contribution fee over the lifetime of this D\u00e1il.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, comments made during the summer by Minister James Lawless dented students\u2019 hopes that a similar reduction would be forthcoming this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresenting a \u20ac500 cut as a permanent measure will be of little comfort to students who need help now. Even if this level of reduction was applied annually over this government\u2019s term, it would not be enough to abolish fees outright.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our alternative budget, the Social Democrats called for the \u20ac1,000 reduction to be maintained for the current academic year as part of a permanent phasing out of fees over the next four years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the level of certainty that students need as they struggle to progress through their academic lives in the middle of a cost of living and rental crises.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland continues to be an outlier when it comes to the cost of college fees, with the government completely out of touch with how expensive life is for students.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents will no doubt be out protesting after tomorrow\u2019s Budget announcement \u2013 and they will have my full support in doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n
October 6, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Third level students are set to be betrayed by the government in tomorrow\u2019s Budget, with a cut of just \u20ac500 in college fees expected to be announced, according to Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins. Deputy Cummins, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on further and higher education, said: \u201cStudents and their families had become accustomed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,770,581,7,771],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-further-and-higher-education","category-jen-cummins","category-press-release","category-third-level-fees"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n