Comments on: You want fees? Earn them by teaching

By: V

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:24:23 +0000

I would engage this debate if it had any merit other than being a giant red herring discourse, to take the heat away from the Economic problems. I expect ‘road safety’, ‘fishing’, ‘drinking’ and a maybe some other moral discourse to follow in the coming months.

To take a statistic about millionaires and apply it to UCD (which is Hugh Brady’s unique personal fiefdom) in order to generate a fake debate about saving a few quid is the slippery slope of neo-liberalism. Why not appoint Brendan O’Connor as minister for transport while we are at it.

By: Tony

Tony — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:50:09 +0000

Sorry for all the typos, my eyes are on stalks.

By: Tony

Tony — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:40:45 +0000

My oldest friend missed a year of college because he didn’t qualify for a grant and his parents flat-out refused to pay. He wound up on an ESF-funded course in DIT and it worked out well for him.

But you’re wrong in thinking that every parent is happy to pay fees.

My feeling is: why should one adult have his or her access to education determined by what another adult earns? What you’re arguing for is a stealth tax when the proper thing to do is tp pay for all this through general taxation which is far more equitable.

So that’s why I’m against fees full stop, though I acknowledge your point about subsidies for the rich. Onc

By: Gingerale

Gingerale — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 10:42:57 +0000

On September 3, Diane wrote, “You cannot be a doctor and look after others if you do not look after yourself. This includes regular sleep and meal breaks, as well as not being impoverished with debt and stressed about money. . . .”

I’m writing to say Diane’s right on this. More than 20 years out after completing my own doctoral degree, I’ve finally gotten this. I certainly learned slowly.

By: Leon

Leon — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:42:34 +0000

Frankly I need a new adverb or to be frank a thesaurus.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:38:17 +0000

Leon

Stop sugar coating it. if you have a problem with the Irish medical profession just say so.

Gerry

By: Leon

Leon — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:35:47 +0000

“The thing that was best about Ireland was that it looked after its citizens as best it could, gave those who showed academic potential a college education”

Ireland has never done this. The children of the poor have always been thrown away. The rich were sent to medical school while the children of the poor were sent of to be ditch diggers and whores in Birkenhead or Kirkcaldy.

Frankly blinkered lazy halfwits like you are the last people we need as doctors. No wonder we have cases like Neary if this is the quality of Irish medics.

The world is full of doctors. You are expendable. Why shoud we pay doctors in Ireland more that doctors in the Ukraine or Armenia. The skill is completely transferrable.

If you don’t like the work or the job quit. The alleged hard work you are doing now (and frankly being a junior doctor is easy compared to most jobs) is not done out of a sense of decency but to store up kudos for the fat cat consultant days.

Doctors are disposable. We should replace you all with foreigners who frankly are better doctors anyway.

By: Soldierofdestiny

Soldierofdestiny — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:33:42 +0000

A lot of retired public servants are going straight into other lucrative activities in the private sector. There are still plenty of opportunities availible-despite the doom and gloom:
http://www.youtube.com/v/boqYEMI8kMw

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:48:18 +0000

Poor Diane,explaining herself to people who don’t want to know.
If you were a teacher or a nurse, Diane, you’d have realised years ago that there’s no point in explaining the reality of your work, pay and conditions, because it is vital to the self-image of the Leons of this world that they don’t know. A little fantasy world has been erected by the self-congratulatory private-sector employee over the last twenty years – enthusiastically encouraged by the media – in which nobody in the professions, particularly professionals in the public sector, deserves any understanding or sympathy.
You might have a pension, you see, or belong to an organisation that defends its pay and conditions through appointed representatives. If you have legitimate grievances, well, then, the only way to deal with those is for the rest of us to put our fingers in our ears and close our eyes until they go away. If there’s a budget allocation to health or education, it can’t be spent on decent salaries, because that might legitimise unions.
Until we actually need to use hospitals, schools or universities, that is, when we suddenly wonder why we have such 1950s services in the 21st century.

By: Pete

Pete — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:37:20 +0000

>Pete, if Arts degree graduates can never repay the cost of their course >then wouldn’t we all be better off if they entered the workforce straight >out of school and pursued their education part time over the course of >their lives.

We (society) would not be better off, but they (the graduates) would be financially better off. Perhaps not better off in other ways.

I don’t think the British loan system, which effectively amounts to an extra tax on graduates once they earn over a certain amount, would work well here, because it would simply encourage graduates to emigrate to avoid paying back loans. And if we operate a “we’ll get you when you come back” tax system, they simply won’t come back.

I remember when the British government set up their current loan system, they tried to arrange things so the banks (or other private finance companies) would make the loans directly to the students, without government guarantee. The banks refused – funding degrees just did not make business sense.