A student loan scheme - too optimistic for Ireland's government

Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 10:52 AM

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Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn

Ireland's new government, elected in February, has been a little less guilty of making ridiculously optimistic statements about the Ireland's future than their predecessors, but they have hardly eschewed the tactic. Every so often they trot out a line or two about how the economy is improving, things will get better, etc.

Well, all of the government's manufactured optimism and bluster about the future was blown away in one remark by the Minister for Education in a statement about the return of college tuition fees. Ruairi Quinn announced that the era of tuition‑free college is coming to an end. Fees have to return because the costs of providing free college education are just too great for a state that is only a hair's breadth away from Chapter 11.

I can't argue with Quinn, although with one daughter in college and another soon to be going, I'd love for the tuition to remain zero for a while longer. However, tuition‑free college is one of the many luxuries that post‑Celtic Tiger Ireland cannot afford.

So tuition is coming back, fair enough. What's really telling, however, is that not only is the government going to reintroduce fees, but they are not going to introduce a student loan scheme – such as exists in America – in order to help students and parents meet the new costs. According to Quinn such a scheme wouldn't work in Ireland because the "student loan system would, in my view, become an emigrant incentive."

"An emigrant incentive." In other words, those students who borrow money to get educated in Ireland could not possibly be enticed to stay. No, emigration will allow them a virtually pain‑free default and offer a more attractive option than remaining in Ireland and repaying student loans.

The thing is, I doubt many Irish people would disagree with Quinn. That's how bad things are here now. At the same time I can't imagine any American politician ever being so negative about the future of America, even in these challenging times.

Imagine for a moment an Ireland where life is so attractive that students want to live here after graduation. Imagine an Ireland where even those who would like to experience life abroad repay their student loans because they assume they'll return to live out their days in Ireland. Imagine an Ireland where jobs are plentiful and wages sufficient so that graduates see their student loan repayments as a cost that can be borne. Imagine an optimistic Ireland.

We caught a glimpse of what such an Ireland might look like during the Celtic Tiger years. Unfortunately the optimism of the early Celtic Tiger years morphed into a heedless utopianism. Free college education was an early example of that utopianism.

Now, according to Ruairi Quinn, not only is the Celtic Tiger dead, but so are optimism and hope. The best we can hope for now is that the emigrating young go with the minimal state support behind them. They're going to leave anyway so make them pay up front for anything they get.

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TheYank | Sep 29, 2011, 10:35 AM EDT

ReturnedYank,

I pay €2,000 for my daughter's education at Trinity College. You got any idea what a similar education would cost in America? It may not be ZERO, but it's as close to zero as makes no difference.

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ReturnedYank | Aug 18, 2011, 08:07 AM EDT

One minor point that needs to be corrected everywhere it shows up, which is everywhere unfortunately: College fees are not "returning" or being "reintroduced." They are already there to the tune of €2,000. If anything happens, it will be the introduction of a second fee, or some other charge with a different name.

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Towngate | Aug 16, 2011, 04:45 PM EDT

This so easy: All non-nationals should be sponsored by their own Governments and be free to return home on graduating. Nationals should be granted interest-free Loans backed by Guarantor. If they wish to leave the country on graduating the fees should be repaid in full to the State with Interest added. Those wishing to remain and work in Ireland should have their fees deducted when their earning reach an agreed level. Really quite simple.

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GeorgeDillon | Aug 16, 2011, 04:15 PM EDT

The system in Ireland is really dysfunctional. You notice it most with expensive degrees like medicine. The Irish taxpayer (that's just folks who work and pay taxes) pumps millions into educating doctors and nurses. I can only throw a guess--maybe 100k spent by taxpayer for every doctor who graduates?--I'm open to correction. And then these graduates get out of town immediately they recieve their parchment. I heard of a case who had a flight booked to depart a few hours after the graduating ceremony. These are smart young medical professionals, employable throughout the world. But Ireland still needs doctors and nurses, so what does the Irish government do? It traverses the Third World recruiting "doctors" and "nurses" from Bangla Desh, Phillippines, Pakistan etc. While there are undoubtedly some competent people among these, the fact is that if you scour the Third World you're not going to get quality people. My wife, for example, had to show a Phillipine nurse how to take my wife's blood pressure. Then there was the crazy case of the Romanian doctor a few weeks back. It's utter madness, and shows what a badly run country Ireland is. There's no hope for it. Just don't get sick if you're vacationing over there. And Yank, Good Luck if you fall sick. My advice is to cross the Border if you can, health care is much better in the North. Do you stilll have US insurance?

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