Now I just wish Ireland would return to having no fees. We still nominally have free education at undergrad level, except you have to pay an annual "registration fee" of €2000. It has shot up in recent years - it was €1500 last year, and before that €900 - when fees were originally abolished back in the 1990s it was, I think, the equivalent of €180. So it's pretty much ten times higher now.
I would love to only be paying that much. I once met a man from Cork who was studying in France to get his Graduate Degree in Chemical Engineering (same degree that I'm in undergrad for), and I swear his education in Europe seemed more complete and in-depth than mine, for a much lower price.
Yeah, I suppose it is admittedly much, much cheaper than studying in the US (assuming that's where you're from, BE). It still pisses me off, though, because education is so cheap in other European countries - my French friends say they paid essentially nothing for their undergrads. One paid €15 in fees this year. That, and the fact that fees only hurt the people who need them least.
Even so, college abroad is typically cheaper than going to a Private University in the United States.