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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 10 Feb 1999

Vol. 500 No. 2

Priority Questions. - Higher Education Grants.

Richard Bruton

Question:

42 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science the plans, if any, he has to introduce changes in the third level student support grant scheme for the 1999-2000 academic year in view of the growing evidence of student maintenance costs exploding, widely acknowledged differences in current levels of support and significant anomalies in the current scheme. [3740/99]

Some 60 per cent of certificate and diploma students in the technological sector and 40 per cent of students in the university sector are eligible for maintenance grants under the three student support grant schemes in operation for third level students. As such, the grants schemes cannot be described as a targeted measure aimed at helping the poorest of students. We should aim to increase the income available to students in need, but we must have priorities and we must target those most in need. In this regard I would point out to the Deputy that expenditure on these schemes in the current year will be in the region of £80 million. This is in addition to the cost of meeting third level tuition fees which will be some £140 million in 1999.

Each year the student support grant schemes are reviewed and improved as resources permit and such a review will be undertaken for all the schemes for the coming academic year. In 1997 and 1998 grant levels were increased in line with inflation. I am particularly concerned about mature students generally and independent mature students in particular in regard to the rate of grant payable. With effect from the coming academic year all eligible mature students will qualify for the higher non-adjacent rate of grant. This improvement is estimated to cost £2.4 million over the next two years. This cost will be met from the additional funding which is being allocated over the next two years to tackle educational disadvantage at third level.

This initiative also includes £3 million specifically to promote access to third level among students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including people with disabilities. I will announce details of the allocation of the additional resources in due course when I have fully considered how best to proceed in this area. I would also remind the Deputy that I have removed the greatest anomaly in student support by the intro duction of grants for post-leaving certificate students.

I very much accept that students in many parts of the country are experiencing particular difficulties in finding good affordable accommodation. I do not believe that an across the board major increase in grants is the appropriate response. Rather I believe that the core issue is a need to increase the availability of dedicated student housing and the resultant release of pressure from the rented sector. The Government is addressing this issue in the context of tax relief provisions for student accommodation which will be provided for in the forthcoming Finance Bill.

I have previously indicated that my priority at third level is the creation of additional places and to this end I have already increased by 8,000 the number of student places available. I have also established the Scientific and Technological (Investment) Fund with a provision of £280 million which is additional to the normal Estimates provisions. At third level the fund will address in particular a serious shortfall in accommodation and will provide additional capacity.

An anomaly I have been pursuing by way of written question with no success concerns Irish students who have been out of the country for more than three years and who expect on their return, as citizens of the State, to take up third level education, obtain grants and not have to pay fees in the same way as every other Irish citizen. They are being turned away under the present scheme. Will the Minister change that? We are making it a virtue to say we cannot get access to the many migrants, a mobile young workforce willing to return and deliver part of the Celtic tiger. Yet, when those young people come back to study we slam the door on them.

I have some sympathy for what the Deputy is saying although that anomaly has existed in previous schemes for a number of years. That measure emerged in the context of fair treatment for all EU citizens but I will look at it again.

I ask the Minister not to be blinded by the briefing he will receive from his officials that the notion of allowing other EU nationals access to our colleges would open the floodgates. We already permit access to any EU national who has been three years in college in his own country. Access would be further opened only to EU nationals who had been three years in colleges in other states. While only a narrow range of people would be included, a significant injustice would be removed.

On the availability of housing, is it not the case that even where student accommodation is provided it costs in the order of £75 per week for custom built student accommodation? People in that accommodation will still have an annual maintenance cost of about £4,000 against the Minister's provision of £1,600. Even if the tax- based schemes are successful he will not address the huge gap between maintenance support and the cost of accommodation and maintenance for students.

Maintenance grants never met the full cost to students of attending college. That grant is of assistance to the student. It is interesting to note that students no longer want to stay in lodgings. This was much more popular ten or 15 years ago. Students are opting for flat accommodation, even allowing for the cost. Some 44 per cent of the student cohort live at home, 29 per cent are in flats, about 10 per cent are in lodgings, 6 per cent are not in specified housing and there are a few other smaller percentages. The response from the colleges indicates the real problem is in Dublin. Many of the colleges throughout the country have provided reasonable campus accommodation.

There is a shortage in Galway.

The advice being received is that there is a crisis in the Dublin area. The way to deal with that is to improve the supply side and to develop measures whereby we can produce more accommodation. The grant scheme on its own will not cover all aspects of attending a third level college.

Since the Bacon report, house prices in Dublin have increased by 50 per cent and rents have increased by even more. This type of response will not put bread on the table for students who are put to the pin of their collars to survive. There are reports of students dropping out because they cannot afford to stay on. That is the reality. There is a need for either a premium for accommodation or much higher grants for people on particularly low incomes. I ask the Minister not to mention tax-based building schemes as we have heard about them for too long.

We need to increase the level of accommodation available. Universities and institutions indicate they will respond in a practical way to any attractive measures in the Finance Bill.

At what price?

If the grants were increased by £100 across the board, that would cost a great deal of money but would have little impact on the issues raised. I have told the Union of Students in Ireland, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the area partnerships that I want to meet or be made aware of students who are dropping out because of income related issues. A specific sum was provided in the budgetary package to deal with students in that category, particularly those from a social welfare background who are finding it extremely difficult, for financial reasons, to survive in colleges. We will try to assist those. We are working with the Higher Education Authority to develop a scheme in institutions because part of the disadvantage access programme will have to deal with a number of schemes which are up and running and part of it will be to give financial support to students in college from low income backgrounds who are finding it difficult to survive. I have asked the Union of Students in Ireland to do its own checking with students who attend individual colleges and to report to me. I am willing to respond positively to those situations. We hear much anecdotal evidence about this matter. It is time there was concrete evidence from those who are arguing and lobbying and for a report on a range of students in difficulty. I am willing to provide funding.

The Minister cannot say he wants every case of poverty to be presented on his doorstep. He has to devise a credible policy.

We are providing it.

In the northside partnership, one of the deprived areas of the north city, a scheme for student support is working on a shoestring as the Minister's Department does not provide funding. That is where the Minister can start.

I have met the northside partnership. Its scheme is excellent.

We await an announcement.

It is a scheme that could act as a model and it is getting into the heart of the community. The methodology being used is good and I am impressed by it.

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