Sir, – I have great admiration for my fellow students’ display of activism this week in Trinity College. However, I would like to know why this outrage is not directed at the Oireachtas for its neglect of higher-education funding in Ireland. Students might find a greater payoff if they staged a protest in the Dáil, as opposed to the grounds of their college trying to balance a €4.9 million annual deficit. – Yours, etc,
DARA Ó CAIRBRE,
Shankill, Co Dublin.
Sir, – The Minster for Education’s silence with regard to the current protests in Trinity College betrays an alarming apathy toward the substantial issues in third-level education that we are currently experiencing. If protests as vocal and prolonged as those ongoing in Trinity don’t seize Government attention, one wonders what on earth will? For too long higher education funding is an issue which has been left on the back burner, but the desperation of universities to raise funding through extortionate stealth charges, such as those proposed by Trinity College, displays an urgent need to address this issue. – Yours, etc,
MATTHEW MURPHY,
Ranelagh, Dublin 6.