John Walsh: Universities will fail without the reintroduction of fees

It’s painfully obvious that if the current funding model doesn’t change, then third-level institutions will remain starved of investment

‘The reality is that scrapping third-level fees has been a boon to the middle classes’

The government must have mixed feelings about the road back to “normality”. The pandemic has cast a shadow over everything Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have done since they formed a coalition in June 2020.

Since then, the daily news cycle has been dominated by the “R” rate and latterly the vaccination programme. This has provided the government with some political cover.

Issues that were becoming increasingly difficult to ignore in the ...