IADTSU to join national protest on student fee increases

AMLÉ’s Protest Poster. Source: amlé on Instagram

Officers from IADT Students’ Union to be among those protesting outside the Department of Further and Higher Education on Monday against recent changes to student fees.

The protest has been organised by the union representing the majority of university students in Ireland, Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn (AMLÉ). It follows their previous protest in July in response to the Minister for Higher for Further and Higher Education, James Lawless, announcing that student fees were to return to the previous level of €3,000 for the upcoming academic year.

AMLÉ’s previous protest in July. Source: AMLÉ on Instagram

In 2023 and 2024, these fees were reduced to €2,000 as part of a cost of living package, according to Minister Lawless. "If I don't have a cost-of-living package, I can't do those kind of measures that were done last year,” he told RTÉ in June.

The Programme for Government approved by the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael coalition earlier this year committed to “Continue to reduce the Student Contribution Fee over the lifetime of the Government [...] in a financially sustainable manner.” There has, however, been no decrease yet announced for 2025-2026, resulting in an expected increase of €1,000 for most students on what they would have paid the previous year. In 2023, the reduction was announced in October after that year’s national budget was determined. 

“AMLÉ and students’ unions across the country have been crying out for the end to the temporary measure and for it to be implemented permanently. It’s incredibly frustrating that it’s now come to this,” says AMLÉ Vice President for Campaigns Faye Ní Dhomhnaill. “Obviously we welcome the eventual abolishment of fees, but it’s put many students into a very difficult situation now.”

Under the Rainbow Coalition of Fine Gael, Labour, and Democratic Left in the mid 1990s, then Minister for Education introduced the Free Fees Initiative which abolished undergraduate fees for third level students. With this, they also brought in a £150 charge for examinations, registration, and student services which became the Student Contribution Fee students pay today. By 2008, that amount had risen to €983, and in the wake of the financial crash, went up to €1500 the following year. By the time (almost) any undergraduates studying today had entered college, this had again doubled to the current €3,000 figure. Adjusted for inflation (€356.89), the initial charge has thus increased to 840% of its original cost in the last 30 years.

Rainbow Coalition Election Materials. Source: irishelectionliterature.com

When asked why IADT Students’ Union was endorsing AMLÉ’s F*ck The Fees protest, Welfare Officer Chloe Danga told the Journalism Society that “with an ever rising increase in cost of living, it is appalling that the government is demanding an increase to an already inflated price.”

Tuition prior to the introduction of the service charge was approximately £3,000, over €7,000 today. The lower figure today is heavily offset by the dramatic increase in the cost of living, with a room in a house share in Dublin 4 in 1992 being just £112 (€266.48 adjusted) per month compared to €900 today for a double bed in Ballsbridge. Over the academic year, at €900 rent alone would exceed 1990s third level tuition fees by over a grand - and that’s without paying the student contribution. It’s not difficult to understand then why advocates would argue that, in practical terms, most students are much worse off than they were 3 decades ago.

“It’s important to note that Free Fees only apply to first-time undergraduates,” Faye Ní Dhomhnaill pointed out. “If you’ve dropped out and returned to education, you’re eligible to pay up to €6,000 as a domestic student.”

SUSI, Ireland’s awarding authority for grants for students in higher education, announced at the end of September that they had already received 7,500 more applications compared to that point in the previous year. The eligibility criteria has recently expanded, leading SUSI to expect close to 110,000 applications this year. There were approximately 265,000 students enrolled in third level in the 2023-2024 academic year, according to the Higher Education Authority (HEA). If similar levels of enrollment have continued into this year, that would suggest more than 40% of students will be applying for a SUSI grant. Around 65,000 students had their student contribution fees paid in full or in part through SUSI in 2024-2025.

“Education is a right,” Chloe Danga says. “Subjecting students to an increase in fees takes away that right for many, leaving them in a position where they are unable to afford this basic human right.”

“Students should join [the protest] as it’s incredibly important to stand up for what you believe in,” Ní Dhomhnaill added. “If more students are priced out of education, there will be no classes to attend in any case.”

AMLÉ’s protest will take place outside the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation, and Science on Monday, October 6th, at 12pm.