Northern Ireland Conservatives chairman, Irwin Armstrong, has challenged the executive to specify where the money will come from to freeze university tuition fees at £3,200 per year.
“Once again the executive’s accounting is far from transparent”, Irwin notes, “When Sammy Wilson announced his budget last year the figures were already highly questionable. At that time the assumption was that the annual cost of each student’s tuition would rise to somewhere in the region of £4,500.”
“Now the First and Deputy First Ministers have committed to freeze fees at £3,200. That leaves a £40 million shortfall in university funding which will have to be found somewhere. The Finance Minister’s department has talked about ‘top-slicing’, which is simply a euphemism for making spending cuts elsewhere.”
“We all know that in the current climate there are difficult decisions to be made, but when will the executive stop hiding every tough call behind smoke and mirrors? Tell people up front which services they must do without in order to pay for freezing tuition fees. Voters in Northern Ireland deserve a bit of honesty for once.”