My decision to take up the time of the House to raise the subject matter of Question No. 32 on last Thursday's Order Paper was not taken lightly. During my membership of this House I have only raised questions on the Adjournment on very few occasions but I feel compelled to raise this question here tonight.
In the course of our work as public representatives we have many pleasant duties to perform and at times some rather unpleasant ones. We would all like to avoid the unpleasant ones if we could possibly do so, particularly such a matter as I am now raising here. I have brought here on the Adjournment the Minister for Education and the Secretary of the Department for both of whom I have the highest respect. Indeed, it did not strike me that the occasion for levelling the charge which I am going to level against the Minister tonight would ever arise. My charge is that it seems to me beyond reasonable doubt that the Department's activities so far as the administration of the higher education grants in the year 1969-70 are, to put it mildly, shady. It also seems to me that the only possible answer to the assertions I shall make here in the course of my contribution is that the Department is guilty of gross incompetence and stupidity.
While Question No. 32 relates to the recommendations from the Cork County Council, the position does not relate to Cork county alone. It is a national question. In the Higher Education Act, 1968, grants were provided for pupils who attained a certain standard in the leaving certificate examination provided other conditions were fulfilled. In the first year 1969-70 one of the conditions was that applications should be tendered to the respective local authorities not later than the 31st May of that year. Subsequently, it was decided by local authorities on a national scale and by the Department, that this date should be set at 31st August each year, which would be the final date for the receipt of applications.
In common with other local authorities Cork County Council was quite satisfied that this regulation, so far as applications were concerned, was fair, reasonable and just. In common with other local authorities it advertised extensively the availability of the grants and the conditions attached to them with particular reference to the fact that the latest date for the receipt of applications was 31st August, 1970. If candidates did not have sufficient interest to aply before that date it was their own look-out. They could not make a claim for a scholarship subsequent to the final date set down for the receipt of applications and I think that was generally acceptable to everybody.
It transpired that a number of applicants in County Cork and throughout the country, who possibly did not intend to pursue a university course and did not make application within the prescribed period, were subsequently anxious to make applications and this is where my statement comes in. Subsequent to the 31st August, 1970 an indefinite number, at least I cannot determine the number throughout the country, particularly in the first week in September, inquired from councils, public representatives, possibly the Department and from any other sources they thought could provide the information, whether they could now apply for these higher education grants.
At this time a higher education grant is a grant worth £300 per year spread over a period of at least five years, which equals £1,500 in all, which is a sum not to be sneered at. Cork County Council in common with other councils on the 9th September, 1970, were surprised to get a communication from the Department informing them that the latest date for applications had been changed to the 11th September, 1970. This meant that applications for grants should be received by the authorities by 11th September, two days after. Was that a reasonable, fair or justifiable period?
First of all, it was impossible for any local authority to acquaint applicants who were interested subsequent to the 31st August that the grants were now restored and applicants could apply. Many of the communications were of a verbal nature and the names of the people involved were not even known to the officials. It could be said that in the two days at their disposal Cork county was more favoured than other counties so far as advertising the scheme was concerned because officials were able to advertise in a local evening paper with a reasonably wide circulation, the Cork Evening Echo, on the date the communication was received, 9th September, advising people in Cork county that the higher education grants date had been extended, by order of the Minister, to the 11th September. On the following day the 10th September, they inserted an advertisement in the Cork daily paper, the Cork Examiner, which has a very wide circulation in Cork, advising people that the date was extended until the next day.
That imposed the obligation on applicants to see this advertisement, having seen it to go about it straightaway so as to be in time for the evening post, to take with them a form of application which should be completed by them and countersigned by a peace commissioner and to have that forwarded to the council not later than the following day.
Surely if the Minister is straight about it that was not a reasonable regulation to impose on any group of people? The charge I made was that this announcement of the 9th September was made to facilitate special applicants who failed to forward their application before the closing date, August 31st, and that the Minister allowed two days to facilitate these special applicants. That is my case here tonight and if that is so to my mind it is bordering on fraud. Public money is involved and every boy and girl who qualified and who did not apply prior to 31st August was just as much entitled to have his or her application considered subsequent to that date as were those who were catered for by the extension of the date over a period of two days. That is all one could say it was. The Minister's Department did not take up the telephone on 8th September and ring county councils or corporations and say that they were extending the date to the 11th. Not at all. The communication went out through the post.
I have said and I repeat that it was to facilitate influential applicants who lost out on the application date. I am a firm believer in adhering to application dates. There would be no question here tonight or there would be no imposition on your time or on the time of the Minister or his Secretary or the other Deputies who are here tonight if this regulation was adhered to. It is the Department who flouted the regulation; it is they who broke it and the reasons set down here by the Minister are rather silly. He said:
There was very considerable difficulty, as the Deputy may well remember, in relation to the marking of the leaving certificate and because the results of the leaving certificate were later than usual the Department, to facilitate all applicants, postponed the date to the 11th September.
Who does the Minister think he is codding?
Cork County Council had six applicants, at last three of whom applied as soon as they read the notice in the Cork Examiner but were unable to have it back by the following day. The Cork County Council was of the unanimous opinion that one girl did post her application in July. That was a case, unconnected with what I am talking about now, to which the Minister was asked to give special consideration. The county council were satisfied beyond doubt, on the word of a peace commissioner, a member of the county council and a member of the Minister's own party, who certified this applicant, that the form was posted in July. She, too, was deprived of a £300 scholarship.
There was some correspondence. The five minutes at my disposal will not allow me to read it in detail. A number of letters were sent to the Minister. The council felt very strongly about this. Incidentally, the numbers do not count in this case, it is the principle, but five of the six people who were involved in Cork county are outside my constituency. I am not acting on behalf of any constituent. I regard this as a national question. A letter to the council from the Department read:
As completed application forms were not received by you before 11th September from candidates A, B, C and D these candidates are not eligible for higher grants.
They did apply when they read the advertisement in the Cork Examiner but could not possibly have the form in having regard to the fact that they had to contact a peace commissioner and so on.
I have left this question over and so have other Cork Deputies for a number of months but the new scholarships are now coming along. We were hopeful that the Minister would change his view. Repeated representations were made to him. A letter sent by the council to the Minister read:
It was pointed out by the council that your letter authorising the extension of the closing date for receipt of completed application forms to 11th September, 1970, did not reach the council until 9th September and as the public advertisement announcing this extension could not have appeared in the press earlier than the Evening Echo of the 9th September and the Cork Examiner of 10th September sufficient time was not available for some applicants to have their application forms obtained from the council——
In the first instance they should write for the form. In Kerry, in Clare, in many other counties there is no local daily paper in circulation. They should do all this in the one day. The letter continued:
—in the first instance and then to have them completed and returned to the council all within the space of two days at the most especially as the forms incorporate a declaration to be made by the parent or guardian before a commissioner for oaths, district justice or peace commissioner regarding the accuracy of the particulars given on the particular application form.
Special mention was made of the case where the council was satisfied that the application form was submitted in July, 1970. The Minister's attitude on that case amazes me but it is not strictly relevant to the points I am making. The council then asked the Minister in view of the shortness of the period to review his decision. The reply from the Department read:
I am to refer your letter of 31st October, 1970, in regard to six applications for higher education grants received by your council after 11th September, 1970, the closing date for the receipt of completed applications this year, and to inform you that the Minister cannot see his way to approve your council's proposal to accept these applications.
