Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 February 2024
13. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if there are plans to include courses for adults with intellectual disabilities such as the level 3 certificate in skills for independent living at Dundalk IT under the SUSI grant scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8724/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAre there any plans to include in the SUSI grant scheme courses for adults with intellectual disabilities, such as the level 3 certificate in skills for independent living which I was lucky enough to visit in Dundalk Institute of Technology recently? Obviously that is one of the courses included in the new funding streams for educational disability, which is very welcome. It is a very specific issue. A number of the students brought it up with me. It is all about fairness.
I thank Deputy Ó Murchú for his genuine support for the roll-out of programmes for students with intellectual disabilities, for his work on the Joint Committee on Autism, for attending our launch of the expansion of courses for students with intellectual disability, and for his tireless advocacy for personal assistants, which I also acknowledge. I want to recognise that. As the Deputy is aware, earlier this month I was delighted to be in a position to announce that ten higher education institutions have been awarded funding to provide a range of courses over the next three years for students with an intellectual disability. It is the happiest and most important announcement in politics that I have ever been involved in. It has the ability to transform lives.
These courses will commence in September and we have provision for around 150 places in the first year. This includes the certificate in general learning on skills for independent learning in Dundalk Institute of Technology, as referenced by Deputy Ó Murchú.
Significant consultation took place in respect of this initiative and I met many students during the consultation period. These consultations highlighted very clearly the diverse range of students’ needs and this was communicated to institutions to allow them to tailor their proposals accordingly. I am pleased the institutions have very carefully considered all matters, such as student supports, in their course proposals. In recognition of this, we have ensured that part of the funding allocated to the institutions can be used to provide financial, pastoral and educational supports to students, including for supporting travel costs and personal assistants, which is an important message I want to set out today.
On the specific question of access to the student grant scheme administered by SUSI, as the Deputy will be aware, this scheme operates within the parameters set out in primary legislation. As the legislation currently stands, the courses proposed by the various institutions are not likely to meet the eligibility criteria for the student grant administered by SUSI. Hence, we have allowed for student support, including financial, educational and pastoral, to be included in the funding we have allocated to the institutions. This is very much the first phase of the initiative. Over the coming three years, we are going to learn and reflect on wider policy and funding. I hope we are going to reform the SUSI Act because I believe the primary legislation needs reform. In the meantime, I am satisfied we have provided funding in our allocation to those institutions and top-sliced that, if you like, to enable them to meet some of those support needs for students.
I welcome the fact the Minister is talking about dealing with some of the inadequacies that exist in the SUSI Act. I wonder how the parameters of some of the supports will work for these students, which is something we have to look at. We are talking about fairness across the board and ensuring as many people as possible can engage with regard to disabilities. When I spoke to those involved in running the course and those attending the course, they believe that what they see as the new funding being provided to them will allow them to properly engage with industry and business, and we can look not only at internships but also employment because this is ensuring there is a proper route map. The Minister has said many times that, unfortunately, when people with disabilities hit 18, this often just falls off a cliff. It is a case of looking at all of those things and finding the parameters with regard to how those moneys can be administered. In the long term, we need to look at these courses in the context of SUSI, but I welcome that the Minister is looking at the Act.
I also think we need to look at the SUSI Act. To be honest, whoever is the Minister and whoever is in government, it is too prescriptive to have this in primary legislation. If we look at the SUSI Act as compared with some of the social welfare Acts, the Minister for Social Protection, whoever he or she is, has a flexibility through regulation whereas, frankly, the primary legislation is too prescriptive for us to respond in real time to the issues that can arise. That is my view and it is something I would like to see us address together.
We are learning as we go and we have to be very honest in this regard. We are trying to do something very new. We are dealing with students who have often been locked out of our third-level education system. Some will come with Department of Social Protection supports, some will come with health service, day service and HSE supports, and some will come with neither or both of them. All of them, though, will enter courses that have been specifically designed to meet the needs of students with intellectual disabilities. All of the programmes that have applied for funding have been allowed, as part of their funding request, to seek some of that funding for the financial, pastoral and educational supports for students, including supports for travel costs, personal assistants and so on.
On the employment piece, the Deputy is correct. We intend to do a piece of work on that to make sure that when people with a disability come out of third-level education, they are also linked in with employment opportunities.
There is a piece that needs to be done even beyond the Minister's Department in the sense of engaging with those in the Department of Social Protection with regard to working towards having people with disabilities engage with business and industry, which is a necessity.
The Minister would be shocked if I did not bring up the case we have been dealing with for a long time and that he mentioned earlier, that of personal assistants in further education. Obviously, we are looking for a follow-up meeting with the Minister and it is to be hoped that between his Department and what is happening at present with Fórsa, we can bring about a better circumstance whereby they have a contract that allows them to live and deliver for those with additional supports in further education. I am talking specifically about colleges such as Ó Fiaich College, DIFE in Drogheda and the colleges in Cavan, Dunboyne and beyond.
I want to specifically address this issue because I believe that when it comes to personal assistants, we need to have a consistency of approach throughout the country. I also believe we need to have real engagement with the Fórsa trade union, which has lodged a claim, which is the right and proper way to address this. The Deputy and I have talked about the issue of what we can do in the meantime, and I want to truthfully acknowledge that the Deputy has championed this. I have approved SOLAS to set an hourly rate of €21 under the fund for students with disabilities for personal assistants employed directly by ETBs with effect from 1 March. That is up from an hourly rate of €14.72 now. I will be sharing the details of that with the Deputy shortly, but in recognition of his work, I wanted to update him on that this evening. This is a recognition that, first, we want to increase funding to the fund for students with disabilities and, second, we want to provide SOLAS with the ability to pay a higher hourly rate to those personal assistants directly employed by the ETBs. However, there is a bigger piece of policy work we need to do around personal assistants.
Question No. 15, in the name of Deputy Bruton, will be taken by Deputy Durkan.
