asked the Minister for Education if he will give (a) full details regarding university student grants, (b) the year payment of such grants commenced, (c) details of any increases in such grants since their introduction and if any increases are proposed and (d) details of all fees charged in each university in each year since 1968.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Student Grants.
1.
The detailed information sought by the Deputy is too extensive, in my view, for oral reply or even for inclusion in the official record. It is in the form of several memoranda which I have with me but which, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to hand to the Deputy.
I accept that the details requested may have required a lot of investigation and I accept the Minister's reply reluctantly. Would he agree that the level of the grants available to students wishing to attend universities has not been keeping in line with inflation and consequent increases in incomes and that it is not possible, for instance, for a labourer's son now to qualify for a university grant because incomes, with inflation, have been increasing and these grants were designed to meet low level incomes? That is not the case now? Therefore, is not the purpose of these grants being frustrated?
Would the Minister now commit himself to raising the parents' income ceiling?
I will commit myself to doing everything that is humanly possible to see that that desirable objective is achieved.
Is the Minister aware that the very people to whom these grants were meant to be of benefit are not now qualifying? Take somebody like a CIE labourer. He will now not get any State aid for a son going to a university.
I am aware of the points made by the Deputies.
Does the Minister intend to do anything immediately for people going to universities?
I cannot preempt the rights of my colleagues in the Cabinet in regard to the Estimates for next year.
Is the Minister aware that many of the thousands of people this year who have children going to university have the money available for three or four months but have no hope of continuing beyond that if the Minister does not come to their aid with funds immediately?
I am aware that there are difficulties.
Will the Minister now admit that many of the people in the Cabinet who were most vocal about third-level grants when in Opposition are now strangely silent on this matter and obviously not co-operating with the Minister?
Is the Minister aware of a student in Maynooth whose father was earning £34 a week and whose mother, in an effort to provide secondary education for her children, went out and got a job at £17 a week and who now find themselves not eligible for any grant? The child who is qualified academically for higher education, is now in the position that he cannot afford to buy books and is now faced with the situation of having to pull out of the university in mid-term. Has the Minister any solution to offer to a child like that?
I would ask the child in question not to pull out in mid-term.
Where will that lead him?
Will the Deputies await the Book of Estimates?
Can the Minister tell us the number of children, particularly in the Dublin area, who qualified 12 months ago but who did not qualify this year because of this situation?
I have not got those details for the Deputy but I will give them to him.
Is the Minister aware——
I have given a lot of latitude on this question.
It is money we want. Is the Minister aware of the 50 per cent increase in the cost of keeping a student in a university?
I am aware of the increased cost of keeping a child in a university.
The implication of the Minister's reply seems to be that an increase will be forthcoming in the new year. In view of the seriousness of the situation, would he make publicly a firm statement on the matter because a number of sons and daughters of hard working people were not able to finance the full cost themselves and a number of them have not been able to proceed to university. If the grants are to be increased in mid-term, would it not be wiser to announce that now because it is still only a month since the universities opened? These young people would be able to start their courses in the universities if there was hope that these grants would be increased.
I will not delay it any longer than is necessary.