Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 18 Apr 2000

Vol. 518 No. 3

Adjournment Debate. - Third Level Fees.

Mr. Hayes

I thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, for selecting this matter this evening. I apologise to the Minister of State and to the House for raising this issue on the Adjournment as it relates to only one person. Although I have tried to get answers from the Department of Education and Science, I have not been successful to date. This was the only course of action left open to me.

This case involves a 24 year old mother with one child who is a constituent of mine. She is currently living with her mother who is on a pension of £80 per week. She has decided to go back to college as a mature student, but she is not receiving the type of State assistance originally identified at the ESF level for trainees in 1999. She falls under the definitions set out in clause 1 of that trainee scheme in that this is an approved course which is an add-on to her existing qualifications and she is a mature student who is over 23 years of age on 1 January. This woman attended a course in Dundalk Institute of Technology some years ago and this is a break from that course. The funding currently available to her is in the order of £679 per year but should be increased to the £1,690 per year full maintenance grant under that scheme.

This woman has tried to make headway with the Department and County Dublin VEC but feels she is getting nowhere. She believes that the Department misunderstands the essential definition of a mature candidate and an approved course. My last course of action is to raise this matter on the Adjournment and I am grateful to the Minister of State for replying to it. I ask him to again review this case given the set of circumstances which pertain. This woman is 24 years of age and is living with her mother who is on a pension of £80 per week. She is looking for the full benefits of ESF grant funding which would mean an additional £1,000 on top of what she is currently receiving. This is a classic case of the bureaucracy standing in the way of her full justified entitlement and the Minister of State should review this case.

Mr. O'Dea

One of the student support schemes which the Department of Education and Science funds is the European Social Fund aided third level courses maintenance grants scheme for trainees. This scheme applies to those pursuing approved middle level technician or higher technical and business skills courses in institutes of technology. For the purposes of the schemes, mature students are categorised as either mature students dependent on parents or independent mature students. The former is defined as a mature candidate who is ordinarily resident with his or her parents from the October preceding their entry to an approved course. Maintenance grants may be paid to mature students whose means and those of their parents, where the mature students are dependent on their parents and the means of their spouses, if any, do not exceed prescribed limits.

An independent mature student is defined as a mature student who is not ordinarily resident with his or her parents from the October preceding their entry to an approved course. These students are deemed to be self-supporting and are assessed without reference to their parents' income or address. Under the terms of the student support schemes, maintenance grants are payable to eligible students at the adjacent or non-adjacent rate.

Except in the case of mature students, the adjacent rate of maintenance grant is payable where the grant holder's normal residence is 15 miles or less from the college being attended. The non-adjacent rate of maintenance grant is payable in all other cases. The position as regards mature students is that, previously, a large proportion of independent mature students only qualified for the lower adjacent rate of grant as their normal residence was taken to be their address while in attendance at college. With effect from the 1999-2000 academic year, all mature students who qualify for maintenance grants are paid at the higher, non-adjacent rate.

The student in this case lives within 15 miles of Tallaght Institute of Technology which she is attending. I further understand that she pursued a two year course at Dundalk Institute of Technology in the academic year 1994-5 and 1995-6 and did not receive a terminal qualification from this course. She returned to college in the 1998-9 academic year and completed year two of a certificate course in Tallaght Institute of Technology.

In the 1999-2000 academic year she proceeded directly into year three of a diploma course. She has been awarded a maintenance grant under the ESF aided third level courses maintenance grants scheme for trainees in respect of the 1999-2000 academic year at the adjacent rate, based on an assessment of her own and her parental income.

The student maintains that she should be assessed as a mature candidate and should, accordingly, be awarded the higher, non-adjacent rate of maintenance grant. To be assessed as a mature candidate under the scheme to which I referred, a student has to be at least 23 years of age on 1 January of the year of entry or re-entry to an approved course. As the student concerned re-entered the approved course in 1998, before attaining 23 years of age, she cannot be considered as a mature student. In this regard I understand that she attained 23 years of age on 9 June 1998.

In this instance it is the terms and conditions of the 1994 scheme rather than the 1998 scheme which apply. Her application for a grant was, therefore, correctly assessed by County Dublin VEC under the terms of the 1994 scheme and she was awarded a full maintenance grant at the adjacent rate, based on an assessment of her own and her parental income.

However, I will ask the Department to look at this case again. In the meantime, if the student has particular financial difficulties she should contact the college authorities to apply for assistance from the ESF aided student assistance/access fund. This fund is intended to tackle educational disadvantage by providing financial support to disadvantaged students who require additional financial support to enable them to fully benefit from their third level studies.

The Dáil adjourned at 9.05 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 19 April 2000.