I welcome the Minister to the House and look forward to working with him. I represent the largest, oldest and most widespread organisation in Irish education and I look forward to being available to him and to being helpful and supportive. I have no doubt but that he will bring to his Ministry the energy and commitment he brings to everything he does.
The issue I raise tonight is one where I believe the Minister and every Member of the House will acknowledge the unanswerable logic of the points I raise. The background to the issue is an unemployment figure of almost 300,000. Every survey carried out in Ireland or in Europe has proved that the more qualified a person the more likely they are to gain employment. Employment depends on qualifications, qualifications depend on education and we have lamented time and again the great resource lost to us in the untapped capacity of unemployed people. We have encouraged people to be flexible and ready for training and retraining, to further their education. We have encouraged people to develop their skills and to use their talents to the best advantage of the State. For that reason the Department of Education recently extended eligibility for higher education grants to mature students. Any of us who understand the importance of education will welcome that positive progressive move, which may also make some impact on the unemployment total.
My problem here tonight is that mature students who began courses last year are being excluded from the new higher education grants arrangements coming into effect this year. Students who took themselves off the unemployed list, worked their way into college, are prepared to work their way through college for whatever number of years required, did so on the understanding that they would be included in new grants provisions. They now find that that will not be the case. The net effect of all this is that the State is going to lose money. Those mature students who leave third level will have to go back on the dole and will ultimately cost the State more money than if they were to receive the grants necessary to continue their education. This does not make any sense. It is a bureaucratic mess. At a time when the new Taoiseach is talking about initiatives, flexibility, openness and removing the blocks to employment, this surely cannot be sustained.
We cannot say that we will extend grant eligibility — I am not talking about more money here but eligibility — to students at third level but not to students who already have places. We now effectively say to some students, "I am sorry you began your third level course last year. You came in before the new scheme so you are not eligible to claim or to seek grants this year." Those students will be obliged to go back on the dole which will cost the State more money than if they paid out grants. It is ludicrous, ridiculous, and against the spirit of everything this Taoiseach has been saying.
We need to clear the log jam on this issue. We are talking about people who expected grants eligibility to apply to them this year and who had got verbal reassurances — this is all it was, in all fairness — that grants would be available to them. They now find this is not the case. Failure to extend grants eligibility actively discriminates against those students already in college. First year students, if the restrictions proposed by the Department are carried through, may be forced to leave college because of the cost burden involved. I have met some students for whom this will be the case.
By introducing a grant for mature students, the Department recognise mature students' need for financial assistance. The Department's logic implies, however, that it does not recognise any financial need among those already attending university. These people have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps into university; they are people in whom we can place an investment and who will help this country along. We are saying to them that because they had the initiative, the push, the drive and the energy to get themselves into college last year, that it's tough luck; there will be no grants for them, they should have sat around for another year drawing the dole. This does not make any sense and I do not expect the Minister to try to justify it. I want to hear him say tonight that he is going to resolve this matter.
I am not gilding the story. Grants exist for mature students. There are mature students in the colleges. The application of this new provision means that people who have fought their way into college, gained acceptance, paid their way expecting to get a grant next year, are not going to get it. Employment depends on qualification which depends on education. We have people with initiative and drive who are now going to be penalised for not waiting another year. I do not believe that the Minister wants to do that. I know his views well enough on employment matters. He was actively involved in trade union and in other activities.
None of us can go along with this and I hope the Minister will not disappoint me by trying to justify it. Whatever is in the script, I want to hear that the Minister will take this matter and try to resolve it whatever its difficulties.
There is also a human story here. People have raised their expectations, have found dignity and planned a future on the basis of beginning their university courses. Let us not let them down. These are the people who hold the future of this country; we need them to create employment. These people have taken themselves off the dole queues. Let us give them the support they require.
