It is the belief of this paper that when a person is charged for something then that charge should only be spent in the spirit in which it was taken. If the documents provided by the Students’ Union president Cónán Ó Broin are accepted as proving the claim that the Student Service Charge is being used against its expressed purpose, then serious questions need to be answered by the College, the HEA, and the Department of Education.
Regardless of the merits or demerits of how we fund our education system or the arguments about fees–it is fair to say that when a fee is levied with the authority of law then it may only be used for its stated propose.
To allow otherwise permits the idea of certainty of law to be reduced to a point where it means nothing to be told what one is paying for.
If the claims of the Students’ Union president are vindicated by the Comptroller and Auditor General or the Public Accounts Committee then will we see the College refund the money it took ultra vires?
If we are fair, the College cannot afford to refund this money. But what it will need to do is reduce this fee in the years to come to an amount that reflects the true costs of what it is supposed to pay for.
There cannot be an attempt to spread the scope of the fee in the coming years. This would be a fee of the sort that was explicitly ruled out in the new programme for government.
The matter will finally be settled when the bill arrives on your door mat next September; the amount that it will be for will be determined in the weeks to come.
