Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 15 Jun 1999

Vol. 506 No. 2

Written Answers. - Maintenance Grants.

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. Martin)

My approach has been to follow the practice of recent years and increase third level maintenance grants in line with inflation as measured by the change in the consumer price index for the period mid February to mid February each year.

As the Deputy will be aware, some 50 per cent of the third level population qualify for maintenance grants and as such the schemes cannot be described as a targeted measure aimed at helping the poorest of students. I believe that we should aim to increase the income available to students in need, but because of finite resources, we must have priorities and we must target those most in need. I have already indicated my intention is to first seek to deal with the more significant anomalies or disincentives in the grants scheme before dealing with the more general issue of grant levels.

In this regard, I have announced that, with effect from the coming academic year, all eligible mature students will qualify for the higher non-adjacent rate of grant. I was particularly concerned about mature students 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 £6.9 million two year funding initiative I announced to tackle educational disadvantage in the third level sector. Of this funding, £3 million is being specifically allocated to promote access to third level amongst students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including people with disabilities. A further £1.5 million is being provided to address the issue of non-completion of courses in institutes of technology. Details of the allocation of these additional resources will be announced in due course when I have fully considered how best to proceed in these areas.