I move:
That Dáil Éireann calls on the Government to increase the money value of third level grants and scholarships and to update the eligibility limits.
I welcome the opportunity to move this motion. Time was when third level education was regarded as the preserve of the privileged, the wealthy. People who could not avail of it were not necessarily lacking in intelligence, but it is true that people who had plenty of intelligence and lacked wealth could not avail of it. Until comparatively recently, third level education was mainly regarded as university education.
The philosophical basis for the introduction of third level education grants and scholarships was the provision of equality of opportunity in so far as that is possible in the modern State. Young people of ability who normally without aid could not avail of third level education, by what had become almost a consensus philosophy in the world, could be aided by Governments and thus be able to exploit their potential and also move socially—it became a means of social mobility. When little words like these become popular they develop into the nature of a cliche, but we should examine the realities behind the words. In our own society it is true, that there are many young people of ability who will not be able to go to third level institutions, universities and other institutions of higher education if they have not got help from the State.
Indeed, for many years second level education in Christian Brothers' schools and other such institutions was provided practically free. It was the best value for money in any country in the world. The money from the State was small and the fees were ridiculously low. The next logical step was to see to it that able people who wanted to go on to third level institutions should be able to do so. Consequently, the few scholarships that had existed were replaced by a system of grants introduced by a Fianna Fáil Government in 1968.
That scheme may need amendment, improvement, but tonight I am talking about raising the money value of the grants and the parents' income ceilings so that the ridiculous situation that exists because of inflation will no longer obtain. The part of the grant that covers maintenance and other expenses is at maximum £300. There is a proposal to increase it to £350 for a person living away from home. For someone living in or adjacent to a university town, the maximum is £120.
I have here an expense case in relation to a girl whom I will call Susanne in University College Dublin. Her fare to Belfield is 12p. She goes to Belfield and returns six days a week. That costs £1.44. She has bed-and-breakfast lodgings and has to buy her lunch in Belfield, subsidised, for 60p, which amounts to £3.60 per week. She must buy her tea six times a week, sometimes five, which at 55p amounts to £3.30 a week. She is in modest lodgings with week-end meals at £9.50. This is not a case I am taking from the air. It is a real one. All that amounts to £19.84 per week. I have not included the cost of books. I should not include cigarettes, but if she smokes, a packet of Carroll's, the cheapest, costs her 20½ per 10. I have not included anything for entertainment, social life, dancing, the theatre. If she drinks a pint of ale per week, they do it nowadays, it costs her 40p. This continues for 30 weeks and I am giving the cost without indulgence of any kind. I have not added money for clothes and I have not reckoned travel between her home and Dublin and her return home at the end of term, which a student would be entitled to have taken into account. All I have given is a parsimonious estimate, crushing out any social element, and that for 30 weeks, and that may be a little longer than the normal. With examinations or extra study it could reckon out at roughly £600 a year and it is low at that. Everyone knows, including the Minister, that expenses are very high nowadays no matter how carefully a student lives.
Away back in 1966 Fine Gael proposed £350. Deputy Collins is smiling. He is an economist and he knows about inflation. Admittedly, Fianna Fáil would have had to pay the Bill. Now that we are in Opposition we can be a little more flaithiúlach: Is fial thú le stiall leathair duine eile. That is what Fine Gael were doing at that particular time. Those were the good old days. There was an inflation rate of roughly 8½ per cent per annum which would bring the total for that period of eight years to about 70 per cent. Since 1973, on top of that, we have had an 84 per cent increase in the cost of living. The end result would be 154 per cent of £350. I presume fees were excluded originally. I saw the Fine Gael document but I did not read it very carefully. I think it would have excluded fees. I reckon the £350 should now read £875 in round figures. What is required now is not the £50 mentioned by the Minister for Finance but a realistic figure related to the CPI.
This is not the most serious aspect from the point of view of the son or daughter of the poor man because even those inadequate grants are not available in any liberal fashion. I have here the figures for the student who does not live in an university town or adjacent to it. This is something the Minister should study until he grows angry and changes it. At the top there is "Income of parent less than £1,600 per annum". To start with, £1,600 is too low. I am sure this is the most recent table. Perhaps the Minister will confirm whether it is or not. A man with less than £1,600 and one child will get the full grant but if he has £1,600 he will not get the full grant. That is the result of these figures being left untouched despite inflation totalling 84 per cent since 1973. A farm labourer on the maximum wage with one child may not enjoy the full grant under the present system. The line lies between £30 and £31 per week.
I had a look at Eolaire an Stáit to see who would be excluded. A paperkeeper ranges between £48.73 to £51.42 per week. Even if his child should be very bright and get four honours in the leaving certificate, he will not get the full grant. A messenger ranging between £44.55 and £47.68 with a child anxious to avail of third level education will not get the full grant because his father is earning too much. A cleaner with £44.22 per week up to £46.89 will not get the full grant under the present system. This is as a result of inflation, as a result of this text becoming a sacred text not to be changed or updated. The Minister will in all fairness see the strength of the case and change that column realistically to bring it in line with the realities that I have just been reading out to the House from Eolaire an Stáit 1977.
A comparatively young clerical officer would be unlikely to have a candidate for higher education, but even he would be outside the limit for his one son or daughter who had the qualifications; a clerical assistant the same. Those few instances indicate to the House how badly in need of revision those figures are. Fine Gael's concern away back in the 1960s seems now to have turned into indifference and I am trying to rouse their conscience to the same fine pitch as it was roused to in 1966 when Fianna Fáil were paying the Bill.
