The debate over the reintroduction of third-level fees once again highlights the fundamental dishonesty of our political masters.

Batt O'Keeffe beating a retreat and then restating his original objective for third-level fees is a distraction from the wider issue.

The real question for ourselves is the value we place as a society on education.

Do we view education as a matter for the individual, a means to gain a career or advancement, or do we see it as benefiting society as a whole by improving the knowledge economy and making ourselves more competitive internationally?

Equal access to all levels of education has to be the goal in any civilised country that wishes to see its people fulfil their real potential. The small-minded approach is to make the individual pay and take the chance that the best people available to us will always be those whose parents will pay for them. This is a fallacy.

The principle of free education should be enshrined in our constitution so that the self-serving arguments of politicians looking for a quick funding solution can be put to rest for good. O'Keeffe frets that those earning millions are not paying the fees, but his concern that the rich are not paying their way is a recent development prompted by the government's need to find more money from anywhere it can. If he is really worried about the super-rich not paying their way, he should also be looking to tackle the labyrinthine revenue system that encourages tax avoidance and shelters.

The logical conclusion is that if we want our higher earners to contribute more to our society, we should tax them up front, incrementally, instead of piecemeal, sector by sector. But there's the real issue, politicians of all hues are incapable of calling for direct taxes because of their craven belief that transparency and simplicity in our tax system is a vote loser. They prefer an unnecessarily complicated web of stealth taxes to hoodwink us into believing that the growing burden of taxation is not so bad. Unfortunately for the politicians, the reality of our tax obligations, both direct and indirect, is hitting every household in the country hard and the pretence is over. Perhaps the new reality for politicians is that honesty could be the best politics.

Robert Hughes,

Kilcloon, Co Meath