A protest has been held outside the gates of Leinster House over potential increases in third-level fees.
Around 100 people attended the protest.
Among the speakers are Labour's Spokesperson on Higher Education Senator Laura Harmon, Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty and Green Party leader Roderic O'Gorman.
Senator Harmon, who led the protest, said she wants the Government to provide clarity on any potential student fee increases.
"Families and students need clarity when it comes to budgeting and they need it now, not next year," she said.
"I believe this Government has shown huge disrespect to students and their families over the past two weeks.
"We saw Minister James Lawless announcing on the airwaves randomly that he was going to increase student fees.
"Families and students need clarity and they need to be able to plan for the future, and we believe that the cost of education needs to be reduced, not increased," she said.
Late last month, Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless said that as things stand, undergraduates will have to pay €1,000 extra in fees this year compared to last year.
He told RTÉ's This Week that this was due to last year's reduction was part of a cost-of-living package which included other supports.
Ms Harmon said she had been contacted by hundreds of students and families in Cork worried about whether they can afford to go to college.
"Rising costs of rents and accommodation is causing huge stress for students as well.
"The Programme for Government just six months said they wanted to reduce the student fee over the course of this Government, so starting with an increase is a really bad start.
"I know there's discord within this Government, Fine Gael don't seem to agree with Fianna Fáil - we had the Tánaiste coming out against this," she added.
President of Trinity College Dublin's Students' Union Seán Thim said the protest was held to show the Government that students "won't back down".
"At the end of the day, it's come out of nowhere, and it's ridiculous thing to have come out of nowhere.
"It's the Government turning around to students and punching down on us and that's outrageous.
"We're here to show the Government that we won't buckle and we won't back down," they said.
They added that students want to first see a guarantee that the fees will not increase and then permanent fee decreases.
