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Top Irish PR body seeks to curb rogue 'influencers' being paid to sell products and not admitting it

The PRII will host a round table with bloggers to create clear guidelines on disclosing payments.

THE BODY THAT represents public relations practitioners in Ireland wants to devise a set of rules to protect consumers from rogue ‘influencers’ that fail to disclose advertisement payments.

The head of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII), John Carroll, said he plans to host a round-table meeting with Ireland’s top snapchatters, instagrammers and the like to hammer out a set of principles on how to handle paid-for ‘content’.

Blogging can be a lucrative business with some social-media influencers getting up to €3,000 for a single Instagram post - but advertising watchdogs have expressed concerns about transparency around that money.

The PRII recently distributed a set of best-practice guidelines to its members on how to deal with bloggers in an ethical and legal manner.

The pamphlet stressed that it is illegal for advertisements to be passed off as editorial content under current consumer protection legislation with a penalty of up to six months in prison or a €3,000 fine.

“Influencers are an increasingly important part of the broader media landscape,” Carroll told Fora.

“Our concern is that in order to protect the broader public, to protect the broader blogging community and to protect people engaged in public relations, there needs to be clear and appropriate transparency by all parties when there is a paid-for collaboration.”

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Consumer protection

The PRII, which has just under 1,000 members on its books, has lobbied in the past for consumer protection laws to be updated to reflect new media.

According to a recent return on Lobbying.ie, the group wanted the laws to be amended “so that it is clear that social media influencers are captured in the prohibition on advertising content being passed off as editorial”.

When asked whether he was still looking for the law to be changed, Carroll said he wasn’t – but he also noted that there is an ongoing review of the European legislation.

He added that he was satisfied with the response from politicians that existing laws covered both influencers and traditional media.

“It doesn’t need to be done, but our position of it is if they are reforming the legislation, they should call (influencers) out anyway so that everybody fully understands (the law).”

Carroll said that the PRII’s new guidelines are there to help PR professionals navigate any grey areas on behalf of their clients.

“If somebody asks (a blogger) for a certain amount of money to write a positive review, but they don’t want to declare that, our guidelines enable our members to go back and say that’s not kosher.”

 

However, he said there is a danger that bloggers themselves are unaware of the legalities around paid-for content because they don’t have a code of ethics like public relations practitioners or journalists.

He said the best of them “are passionate amateurs”.

“They’re talking about beauty or food because they love it, but they’re not journalists in the traditional sense. They don’t know about journalistic ethics. They don’t know that people are expecting a level of dispassionate consideration.”

He noted that many bloggers are unwilling to post a bad review about a product, which is bad for consumers: “The credibility depends on them being able to say ‘this is great’ or ‘this is crap’.”

According to the PRII’s guidelines, firms should respect that influencers may not like their product: “If all coverage from an outlet is positive, it has little value for consumers.”

‘No blueprint’

Sinéad Carroll, founder and chief executive of the Irish Blogger Agency, said that bloggers are most likely to refuse to review a product outright if they don’t like it.

Carroll, who created the Yummy Mummy blog, said: “I won’t review a product unless I believe in it or I like it. If I don’t like it, rather than slate it, I will say why it hasn’t suited me but it might suit somebody else.

“You have to be critical all right and you can’t say everything is brilliant, but you have to be conscious of the way you do it.”

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She said readers “aren’t silly” and will realise that if a product is noticeably absent from a blog, it’s because the influencer dislikes it.

The Irish Blogger Agency, which launched in September and so far signed up around 100 influencers, has stressed with its members that “any exchange of money is advertising” and must be disclosed as such in a post by using clear hashtags.

Carroll said there is no definitive blueprint for influencers on how they should handle gifts and payments and said she would like to “align with the PRII” and “see the standard of blogging being elevated in Ireland”.

Written by Conor McMahon and posted on Fora.ie

Read: The head of CityJet thinks the airline had ‘a disease’ – and he’s the cure

Read: Why the Burning Man festival turned its back on profits in a bid to ‘go beyond death’

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    Mute Reg
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    Aug 19th 2016, 5:34 PM

    You also have to consider that about half of those that go to college in Ireland are in receipt of some kind of grant. Something like 8 out of 10 for those from Donegal and 3 out of 10 of those from Dublin.

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    Mute TheLoneHurler
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    Aug 19th 2016, 7:51 PM

    I’d like to see a value-for-money comparison included – for example, the fees for a college/university and the ranking of said institution also.

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    Mute Shawn O'Ceallaghan
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    Aug 19th 2016, 9:16 PM

    The Journal is a bit misleading on this. Cost of 3rd level for me cost €10 for an id card and €75 for i book i never read.. a couple of euro for printing per week. And yes i was covered by Susi. Its means tested system as it should be.. saying its the most expensive system is just tripe. Anywhere from 40%-70% get some sort of financial aid.

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    Mute Simone Hackett
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    Aug 20th 2016, 7:41 AM

    @reg its mid income families suffering here. But where can we find those statistics? How many students receive grants from the government?! That would be interesting

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    Mute Niamh Murtagh
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    Aug 22nd 2016, 12:36 PM

    So you had no accommodation costs, food costs, travel costs, materials, etc to pay? and you only needed one book for your entire course over however many years it was too?

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    Mute James O Brien
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    Aug 19th 2016, 5:55 PM

    If fees are free people don’t appreciate the education vs if they have to pay by getting a part time job. People sign up to courses for the sake of it and many are dissatisfied and drop out. At least if there is a fee they will consider whether it’s worth it before wasting their time.

    Having said that, I think 3k is too high to pay on a part time job. It was 2k when I went which is much closer to a fair amount. I’d say 1.5k would be a fair level.

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    Mute Aoife
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    Aug 19th 2016, 6:12 PM

    James. I agree with you on that one. If you look at Leo varadker for example, he went to a private school paid for by his parents and he doesn’t appreciate how difficult it can be for people less fortunate than himself to get through or even go to college.

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    Mute Alien8
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    Aug 19th 2016, 6:12 PM

    I’m sure most of the students who pay the fees get their parents to pay for it, and we don’t have any misunderstanding where the fees come from, and don’t appreciate it fully free few were available. i work my hole off to pay a huge amount of taxes, and every second of overtime is taxed at over 54%. For this, i have to pay over €1000 per year for free secondary education, and €3750 per year for third level. we have just had our daughter tell us she will be joining her sister in UCD, and the free few will leave us with a bill of €8500 to be paid by January. We have no chance of getting a SUSI loan for any component, but still we have to get a new loan every year. both girls work part time to pay for transport and a meagre “predrinks” social life, and it is obvious that this has impacted the quality of their study. At the end of their studies, we will have gathered over €30k in additional debt, and more than likely the kids will have to emigrate to get work. Ifc we didn’t have to fork out such a high amount for education, we would be able to sort them for getting started in either business or a place of their own to enable them to stay, but instead all we have to look forward to is personal poverty and the loss of our kids to entertain. Ireland truly is a kip.

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    Mute Get Lost Eircodes
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    Aug 19th 2016, 6:33 PM

    In my day only farmers kids and self employed’s kids went to 3rd level…

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    Mute Dotrice Altrium Hollohatch
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    Aug 19th 2016, 6:49 PM

    So incorrect it confirms your idiot status. Do you type the first thing that comes into your inadequate head?

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    Mute Dotrice Altrium Hollohatch
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    Aug 19th 2016, 6:51 PM

    Unless you were born before WW2….

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    Mute Tony Canning
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    Aug 19th 2016, 9:31 PM

    People who drop out are subject to full cost to repeat. That number isn’t so high. The idea that people don’t appreciate it as a blanket statement is rubbish.

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    Mute Maria Egan
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    Aug 20th 2016, 11:59 AM

    Well said Alien8…the financial hardship that 3rd level education inflicts upon middle income families is rarely discussed! Add rent and living expenses to fees and that annual debt more than doubles. I’ll be repaying the (savage) debt accrued to educate my kids until I’m seventy, and all because I earned a little over the upper ceiling for grant aid. So tired of struggling to make ends meet, and I’m a long way off seventy so the struggle continues. And now have the added hardship of youngest child working abroad, not his wish or mine. I would fully support a fair student loan system…I would much rather have the choice to contribute to my child student debt than to be flat broke until I’m seventy, with no opportunity to save for later life!

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    Mute Jonny
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    Aug 19th 2016, 5:37 PM

    It would seem that being from an English speaking country is a curse in terms of cost of education.

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    Mute Martin Matthews
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    Aug 19th 2016, 7:31 PM

    The fees them selves are high but be manageable it is the cost of accommodation which is the difficulty. If you live a distance from the 3rd level colleges. Students need at least an other 7,000 euro per year for travel accommodation.

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    Mute John S
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    Aug 20th 2016, 7:45 AM

    600 quid a month for accommodation? what ever happened to students sharing rooms, slumming it etc like everybody did before entitlement Ireland took over?

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    Mute Niamh Murtagh
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    Aug 22nd 2016, 12:33 PM

    If you look at some of properties up online, that is what is being asked in rent rates for room shares and digs in cities. And as for Bedsits you would be paying more than that again.

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    Mute David Walsh
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    Aug 19th 2016, 5:34 PM

    Students shouldn’t have the burden of college fees, the state should cover it as it’s an investment in the future of our country. I would shudder at the thought of where some of the money goes..

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    Mute Dotrice Altrium Hollohatch
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    Aug 19th 2016, 5:42 PM

    Rubbish David. People don’t work hard to support students, who think they should have a monopoly on advancement and achievement.

    48
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    Mute Dotrice Altrium Hollohatch
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    Aug 19th 2016, 5:56 PM

    AND – some actually believe in ‘trinners for winners’ nonsense. NOW, they want the taxpayer to pay for it!

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    Mute David Walsh
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    Aug 19th 2016, 8:21 PM

    So do you think it’s fair for an 18 year old, just out of school to start paying €3000 a year if they aren’t lucky enough to get a grant? I don’t think so.

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    Mute David Walsh
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    Aug 19th 2016, 8:24 PM

    And Nick, how much of that goes towards the benefit of students and how much of it goes to over-lining the pockets of senior college staff?

    Only last year UL was under investigation for misapplication of college funds and paying off staff to keep it quiet. So think before you have sarcastic comments to make

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    Mute Keith Gregg
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    Aug 19th 2016, 9:28 PM

    Some Dotrice. Not all. Everyone should have opportunities to do well and study to the level they wish or are able to. It would better benefit society. There are some very hard working students, but as mentioned rightly this week, there is too much of a focus on high academics, when for many a vocational or hands on route would be better, via PLC’s, VTOS, BTEI, Momentum etc… Every course should have work placements, or at the least industry placements, where hands on and soft skills could be solidified, though most workers are terrible at teamwork and problem solving.

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    Mute Lily
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    Aug 19th 2016, 5:51 PM

    Pity Ireland didn’t bring in a similar model to the uk (where the NHS pays for tuition fees uk/eu students doing social work, midwifery, nursing, dentistry and student accommodation for uk students).

    If the HSE paid Irish students 3000k fee and guaranteed them a job at the end of the 4 years it would something to keep our young ones from leaving the country to work elsewhere and knowing that they have some of the best education one can receive, on top of that they also speak fluent English and can converse and understand the Irish.

    But pigs don’t fly and the HSE aren’t there for the benefit of the general public.

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    Mute James O Brien
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    Aug 19th 2016, 5:59 PM

    3k per year is only 12k total. How many nurses would choose to stay here instead of moving for a once off payment of €12,000. Very few I imagine. The problem is wages not fees.

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    Mute Lily
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    Aug 19th 2016, 6:39 PM

    Guaranteed job!!! They could always bring in a stipulation they had to work in Ireland for 3 years (thus gaining valuable work experience). It’s win win.

    I know my daughter wants to stay here and study but we are looking abroad for alternatives, I know that once she leaves she will never come back.

    If the bursary system is still in place in two years time she will be going to university in the UK, in London and it will work out cheaper even when we take into account accommodation as she would be laying the same in Ireland

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    Mute Stephen Coveney
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    Aug 19th 2016, 8:53 PM

    @Lily
    Where the hell are you getting these guaranteed jobs? take for example 1000 students start there course in 2006, 4 years later in the midst of a recession the government now has to take on 1000 graduates when they have no money??

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    Mute Tony O' Leary
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    Aug 19th 2016, 9:13 PM

    I moved nearly 5 years ago ..its 3 years here for nursing which the NHS pays for ..plus it wouldn’t be 3 k per year as majority of uni courses are 9k per year. There loads of Irish that do the same. The wages here a better as well its cheaper living hence why so many Irish decide to stay.

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    Mute Keith Gregg
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    Aug 19th 2016, 9:31 PM

    Steven, there is still a recruitment freeze on front line services, while the admin side is haemorraging with over staffing, double jobbing and general skullduggery. People end up sick, a lot. You shouldn’t put a price on someone’s health, or indeed their life.

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    Mute John S
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    Aug 20th 2016, 7:50 AM

    Lily, stay here for 3 years? How are you policing this? You can’t force anybody to stay anywhere. That idea is great in theory, but not workable. Also, why should only nurses get it? They are not the only valuable profession….

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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Aug 19th 2016, 5:52 PM

    The abolition of tuition fees in 1996 did very little – if anything at all – to increase the level of students of disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.

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    Mute Jack Leahy
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    Aug 19th 2016, 5:55 PM

    Of course it didn’t – because no one who knows their stuff on the subject of HE funding thinks of the funding mechanism as the silver bullet for access solutions. Access is a much, much broader question than how much you pay or don’t pay at the door.

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    Mute Jonny
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    Aug 19th 2016, 8:17 PM

    That’s just blatantly untrue Ciaran! Any sources to back that up?

    How else do you explain the massive increase numbers attending third level since that time, increasing at a faster rate than the relevant birth rates for those years. It’s because people who couldn’t afford before now could! That means they were disadvantaged to begin with.

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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Aug 19th 2016, 8:40 PM

    @Jonny

    DIT economics lecturer Sean Byrne wrote on this website two years ago:

    “A report on the operation of the third level grants system was commissioned by, Niamh Bhreathnach when she was Labour Minister for Education in the Fine Gael Labour Government of 1992 to 1997. The 1993 report by Donal de Buitleir showed that the grants system favoured farmers and the self-employed over PAYE workers, whose income was easily determined, while the income of farmers and the self-employed could be reduced by the offset of losses or declining agricultural prices and took no account of wealth.

    To solve this problem, de Butileir recommended including assets in the means test. This proposal was vetoed by Fine Gael. The report also showed that many high income parents were covenanting income equivalent to fees to their children and thus lowering their income tax payments.

    Niamh Bhreathnach responded by abolishing undergraduate tuition fees, arguing that this would increase participation in third level by students from low-income families. This was a questionable justification for abolishing tuition fees, as students from low-income families who secured a grant had their fees paid. The problem with the grants system was that for PAYE workers, the cut-off income for a grant was too low.

    Participation by students from low income families did increase somewhat, but remains low, while participation of students from well-off families is now among the highest in the OECD.”

    http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/third-level-tuition-fees-ireland-1797064-Nov2014/

    Bhreathnach’s decision meant that well-off parents were able to spend money on Leaving Cert grinds for their children, thus accelerating the points race.

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    Mute Jonny
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    Aug 19th 2016, 8:55 PM

    The most relevant part in that passage is
    “Participation by students from low income families did increase somewhat”

    While it may not have made the playing field equal there is no doubt it made third level more accessible to those whom it wasn’t before.

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    Mute Keith Gregg
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    Aug 19th 2016, 9:32 PM

    A lot of it is the attidues to education, and the ethos of going to third level. That takes a generation to start to kick in.

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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Aug 19th 2016, 9:39 PM

    @Jonny

    ‘The most relevant part in that passage is
    “Participation by students from low income families did increase somewhat”’

    But not by much.

    There were grants available to students from low-income families before 1996. Of course, some people like to make farmers the scapegoats for problems with higher education.

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    Mute Anne Lebaupain
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    Aug 19th 2016, 6:23 PM

    For those interested :
    Easy to find université fees for France : https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F2865
    184 euros for Bachelors/Degrees
    256 euros for Masters
    check list in link for fees for medicine, nurses, midwives (sage-femmes) etc…
    (all roughly same as above, some slightly higher)
    There’s social security fees to add to that (about same as above I think, not sure), some health cover, and maybe another 50 euros for other services like sports access, etc…
    If the student is entitled to a bursary they pay less (or maybe not at all).

    36
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    Mute Joe Fingersmith
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    Aug 20th 2016, 8:16 AM

    Securite sociale is 215 euro for the year (of course you get a lot of more protection and better service from that than is possible in Ireland)

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    Mute Keith Gregg
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    Aug 19th 2016, 9:23 PM

    They year i did my LC in 2001 – the Registration fee was £250. This went up to €750 with the Euro coming in. By the time I graduated in 2006, it was €1250 as far as I recall. Ten years later in 2016, its more than doubled, and has quadrupled since 2002.

    We have never had free education in Ireland. For Primary and Secondary, you have uniforms, books, photocopying, voluntary contributions (which are not voluntary in many cases). The government needs to get its finger out and fund education, so schools can afford light and heat (or maybe the energy companies could not charge schools and hospitals – seeing as they are vital to the country?). Like most things it is a token gesture. The politicians we have in power no longer want equity in this country, and even Labour – who introduced free fees – want them gone (possibly brainwashed by their marriage to FG). Some of the happiest countries in the World are in Scandinavia, worse weather, and higher taxes alright, but better public services, and generally a much happier and cheaper cost of living. this neo-liberal “we must pay for everything through charges” is non-sense. Return to a progressive tax system, and stop this stealth tax rubbish.

    35
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    Mute Get Lost Eircodes
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    Aug 19th 2016, 5:56 PM

    You can’t pay the lecturers entrepreneurial wages with platinum plated expenses and expect the service to be cheap…ditto for Teachers, Gardai, Nurses, Doctors….except the new ones they have all been screwed by their colleagues above them…

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    Mute John003
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    Aug 19th 2016, 6:06 PM

    In Northern Ireland they are around £4,500 per year
    That is under SF rule

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    Mute Keith Gregg
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    Aug 19th 2016, 9:29 PM

    No John, The UK is ruled by the Tories. In NI the DUP and SF are in coalition, and have limited power – basically like Dublin City Council trying to implement things. Limited budget, limited everything.

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    Mute John003
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    Aug 20th 2016, 1:03 AM

    Well the Scottish assembly with same powers as NI assembly have managed to abolish University fees

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    Mute EC P Ford
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    Aug 19th 2016, 6:29 PM

    Don’t have kids then you don’t have to worry about fees

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    Mute Just Some Guy
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    Aug 19th 2016, 7:18 PM

    People in this country dont listen. They want everything handed to them for free

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    Mute Just Some Guy
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    Aug 19th 2016, 7:17 PM

    If you want to go to 3rd level go out and get a job.

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    Mute Kevin Denny
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    Aug 19th 2016, 8:35 PM

    As Reg above pointed out about half of our students don’t pay anything as it’s covered by a grant so the true average is about $1400. To some extent this will be true for other countries also – not as much I think. For countries with an income contingent loan system (incl Australia, NZ, UK) a significant number won’t pay anything either. The data refers to public universities so omits the significant private sector in the US, generally pricier.

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    Mute Aging Lothario
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    Aug 20th 2016, 2:21 AM

    I find that very hard to believe, the USA has easily the highest college fees in the world, in most cases it can cost more per month than the mortgage to keep a child in college.

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    Mute Seán J. Troy
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    Aug 20th 2016, 12:59 AM

    I mean, fair play for trying. But using GDP as a yard stick for determining affordability? You’re also aware that the OECD is only a fraction of the rich world, nevermind the whole world?

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    Mute tony walsh
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    Aug 20th 2016, 7:40 PM

    $60000 in USA

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