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Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald has been challenged to rule out an increase in university tuition fees.
Newry and Armagh MLA, Justin McNulty has called on the Minister to live up to Sinn Féin’s repeated commitments not to increase tuition fees. It follows a call from universities to increase fees last week.
Mr McNulty said: “It is astounding that despite repeated commitments from Sinn Féin not to increase university tuition fees, the Economy Minister refused to rule out the possibility in the Assembly this week. In the South, Sinn Féin has repeatedly called for tuition fees to be abolished altogether, but it is now clear that in the North the party is considering increasing the financial burden on our students. This is totally at odds with previous statements from the Minister and her predecessor.
“The SDLP is alive to the need to properly fund our universities which contribute so much to life here, but this should not be achieved by pushing these costs onto those who can least afford it. The cost of a university education should not mean living in substandard housing, working every hour possible and having to access food banks to get by."
The MLA continued “It’s frankly ludicrous to fall back on the well-worn Executive tactic of blaming the UK Government for the prospect of increased student fees. Since its return, this Executive has repeatedly failed to take the difficult decisions necessary to address the wide variety of challenges facing this place, ruling out many proposals while doing little else. It’s notable that there hasn’t been the same rush to reject this increase to tuition fees.
“Sinn Féin has repeatedly promised students they would not raise fees and they must live up to it. The SDLP intends to hold them accountable to that commitment.”
