Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000

Vol. 525 No. 5

Adjournment Debate. - Higher Education Grants.

Mr. Bradford

With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I would like to share my time with Deputy Enright. This is an issue of great importance to every student. In 2000, we must recognise finally that a student maintenance grant of £49 per week is insufficient and inappropriate. In recent years, the rate of increase in the student maintenance grant, the support structure, has been minimal. The increase in the cost of accommodation, travel, food, etc., is three or four times greater than the increase, in percentage terms, in the maintenance grant. That cannot continue if we are to give access to all to third level education.

The decision of the last Government to introduce the free fees system was very welcome and has been a godsend to thousands of students. Getting to college and having college fees paid is only half the battle. The student must meet his or her commitments each week. It is impossible to do so on the grand sum of £49. We must stop the platitudes and stop talking about our fine young people and their great efforts to build up the country. We must ensure that instead of paying lip-service to students, we pay them a realistic level of college support.

I am sure the Minister of State will tell me of yet another review to look at this subject. Over the past decade, four or five different reports have been produced on this subject but, unfortunately, they are not being acted on. If the current initiative of the Minister to again look at the system of student grants, the level of maintenance, etc., is going to take another six or 12 months, it will mean students will be surviving on pennies for the next year. It is causing a high drop out rate among students because they simply cannot afford to remain at college and that is a great tragedy. It is a tragedy for those who worked hard at second level in order to obtain a place at third level to have to give up that place because they cannot afford to pay the weekly costs of being a student.

If the Minister and the Government want to be realistic they should forget about commissioning extra reports because all the work has been done and all the statistics are available. They should give a clear commitment to introduce a realistic level of student support. I challenge any Member of this House or anybody outside it to try to exist in one of our major cities on £49 per week. I know one could not do so and yet that is what we expect of third level students. I ask the Minister of State to relay to his colleague, the Minister, Deputy Woods, the need for immediate action. We do not need more reports, we have plenty of reports. We need action.

Mr. Enright

I thank Deputy Bradford for giving me the opportunity to speak on this matter. I will outline for the Minister of State the case of a young person looking for a maintenance grant and will give him the name and address later. The parents of this young person applied to Offaly County Council for a maintenance grant and they sent in everything on time. I communicated with Offaly County Council on 1 August and received correspondence from it refusing the grant to this person because the family income exceeded the guidelines.

I took the matter up with the Minister, Deputy Woods, on 5 September. I wrote him a very comprehensive letter outlining the full details and I enclosed the letter from Offaly County Council. I asked the Minister to use his discretion to allow this person a higher education grant. I outlined the fact the father was suffering from a brain tumour for which he was receiving considerable treatment and that he had to attend Beaumont hospital frequently. It has been an ongoing problem for a number of years. I also outlined the fact the mother had lost the sight in one eye and was in danger of losing the sight in the other eye. I explained to the Minister the ongoing cost of laser treatment.

I received an acknowledgment from the Minister on 21 September. I took the matter further and sent the Minister another letter on 2 October and I telephoned him. The father is seriously ill and the family does not have a medical card. These are ordinary working people who are barely above the guidelines. They have been refused a higher education maintenance grant. It is a shame. If I gave this story to the Sunday World or some other newspaper, I guarantee the Minister would pay it. I am not looking for any publicity but for honest and fair play in this case. I would ask the Minister of State to look after the matter.

Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science (Mr. O'Dea)

If Deputy Enright wishes to give me the name and address of the person, I will certainly pass it on to the Minister and ask that he reply to it.

The statutory framework for the maintenance grants scheme, as set out in the Local Authorities (Higher Education Grants) Acts, 1968 to 1992, provides for higher education grants in order to assist students to attend full-time third level education.

The practice in recent years has been to increase the rates of third level maintenance grants annually in line with inflation and to increase the reckonable income limits in line with movements in the average industrial wage. Last June, in line with this policy, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Woods, announced increases of 5% in the rates of maintenance grant and 5% in the qualifying income limits for the 2000-01 academic year. The reference value for inflation for the purpose of the annual review is the annual percentage increase in the CPI to February. The increase of 5% in grant rates for 2000-01 was higher than the reference value, which was 4.3%.

Some 40% of third level students qualify for maintenance grants. The need to target resources at those most in need is well recognised and underpins the Government's approach to tackling disadvantage. In this regard, there is provision in the national development plan for a third level access fund totalling £95 million over the period of the plan, aimed at tackling under-representation by students from disadvantaged backgrounds, mature students and students with disabilities.

The Minister recently established an action group on access to third level education with the aim of tackling under-representation of disadvantaged students. This action group will advise the Minister on the development of a co-ordinated framework to promote participation at third level by such students. The group, which has held four meetings to date, has been asked to provide a report within three months.

As an indication of the Government's support in promoting equity in access and as an initial step, pending the findings of the action group, the Minister has announced the introduction of a special maintenance grant payable to disadvantaged grant holders, targeted at those most in need. The full rates of the special maintenance grant entail increases over the standard rates as follows, from £1,775 to £2,000 for students residing more than 15 miles from college and from £710 to £1,000 for students resident within 15 miles of college. Tentative indications are that up to 10,000 students may benefit from this measure.

As regards the future administration of the schemes, Department officials have been engaged with officials from the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs in relation to possible options.

On 1 November, the Minister also announced that he is setting up immediately a special project team to carry out a comprehensive review of every aspect of the maintenance grants and other student supports to ensure their relevance to the needs of present day third level students.

The review will include the level of grants, the methods by which they are paid, eligibility and income limits, accommodation needs, student support services, the most suitable paying agency, the provision of an appeals system, student loans and taxation measures. The project team will be asked to report by the end of March 2001.