"I'm afraid of what I'm hearing"
I've just been chatting to the Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew - not about her strategy to achieve a healthy population of honeybees (published today), but rather about her views on student fees.
The Employment and Learning Minister Danny Kennedy is currently in North Carolina But next Tuesday he's expected to be back at Stormont spelling out the conclusions of Joanne Stuart's updated review of student finance.
Ms Gildernew says she "afraid of what I'm hearing" both from the coalition government in London and Mr Kennedy's Department of Employment and Learning. She says she won't implement "Tory policies" in her department so has instructed her officials to freeze the fees currently paid by 1600 students in 3 agricultural colleges, rather than increase them in line with inflation. She has also ordered them to break with previous practice which would have been for the agricultural students fees to line in tandem with rises in other further education colleges.
The freeze on fees shouldn't cost the Agriculture department any more than £60,000 so it's a fairly cost efficient way for Sinn Fein to make a public distinction between its policies and any increase adopted by the Ulster Unionist DEL minister. Danny Kennedy will have to struggle with much bigger sums if he is to make the further and higher education budgets balance.
But it should make for a lively debate whenever Mr Kennedy decides to spell out what action he intends to take.
I'm 
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