Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 1 Jun 1994

Vol. 443 No. 5

Adjournment Debate. - Student Grant-Aid.

Mr. Crawford

I thank the Chair for the opportunity of raising this matter and the Minister for coming into the House to reply. This is an important issue for a small number of people but that does not mean it is not relevant to this House. Students doing radiography courses in Jordanstown, Belfast, must go on placement during the summer months to various hospitals in the North, including the Royal Victoria Hospital. This is part of their course and they do not have a choice in this matter. Although Northern Ireland students who are on local authority grants for the rest of the year get a placement grant to do this course, students attending from the Republic of Ireland do not. It does not make any difference that students are on county council grants for the rest of the year, they still get no placement grant for the summer. How are these students expected to live? They do not get paid for their work in the hospitals because it is part of their course. They cannot take up a summer job to earn some money because they have to be on placement.

This is a very serious situation for these young students, many of whom go to the North to study because, coming from middle income families, they are not eligible for grants in the South. They take the opportunity of free tuition in the North in order to be educated. If, instead of going on to third level education, they went on the dole queue here, they would be supported and given what help they needed. If they took a flat in a town they would also get support towards paying the rent. It is difficult to understand, therefore, how some mechanism cannot be found to help this small number of young people who are making every effort to further their own education. They should be supported for the small amount of money it would cost. We spoke for hours about the billions that come from Europe and many millions of pounds are spent on education. If it were not for the support they get towards their tuition in the North many of these students would not be in college. I ask, therefore, that funds be provided for placement grants such as those which their counterparts in the North get. Otherwise there will be extraordinary pressure on some low and middle income families. That is not fair and should not continue.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (Mr. O'Shea)

I am happy to respond to the Deputy on this matter though I have more experience of responding to him on other matters. I would initially like to state that there is no provision under our student support schemes for the payment of placement grants irrespective of where the course is being undertaken. If such a provision were to be introduced in our student support schemes it would have to be made available to all our recipients of student grant-aid, not just those in a particular category such as those pursuing courses in Northern Ireland.

The officials have been in contact with the relevant authorities in Northern Ireland in an effort to obtain information on the placement grants referred to by the Deputy. However, in the time available it has not been possible to ascertain the nature of the entitlements in question, which agency pays them or how they relate to the student support system in Northern Ireland. The Department will be continuing its inquiries.

Equity demands that the grant holders referred to by the Deputy be in receipt of the same level of grants as their counterparts who are studying in the Republic and the Deputy can be assured that this is the case. Clearly it could not be the objective of our student support schemes to assist students from the Republic who are studying in the North on the basis of the student support schemes which apply to students from Northern Ireland.

The general principles applied by the Department when dealing with applications from students who wish to qualify for continued grant-aid while involved in off-campus work is as follows. Where students are required, as an integral part of their course, to go on placement for further training-work experience, the Department in general allows payment of maintenance grant-aid to continue where the placement is short-term — up to two terms duration. Where placement exceeds two terms the Department would decide whether to continue grant-aid on the basis of the type of course in question, whether the student remained registered in college, the amount and source, if any, of any remuneration outside the grants schemes.

The amount of the annual maintenance grants payable to individual students under the third level student support schemes cannot in any circumstances exceed the maximum set out in the schemes. For administrative reason the maintenance grant is paid in three equal instalments by the local authorities — vocational education committees.

I trust that the foregoing explains the position satisfactorily to the Deputy.

There are further inquiries under way to ascertain the position that obtains in Northern Ireland and I am sure the Department of Education will be in contact with the Deputy on that matter.

The Dáil adjourned at 8.45 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 2 June 1994.