Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Is it not now a bit late, three quarters of the way through the academic year, for the Secretary General to inquire whether students are informed of such a right or of the existence of an independent appeals board? We are almost at the end of the process. The Secretary General indicated that most of them have been dealt with and I accept that 55,000 out of 69,000 have been completed. Moreover, some of them may have been merely speculative applications in which people sent in the forms. As the Secretary General noted, thousands have not pursued their application when asked for further information and their completion may never come to pass. As for talking about the awareness of this independent appeals board, it is proved by Mr. Ó Foghlú's observation that having nearly reached the end of the year, 2,000 people have been refused but only approximately 100 appeals have been lodged.

On the operation of the aforementioned independent appeals board, it is funded by the Department of Education and Skills and I do not object to that. The Minister confirmed that in the period between its establishment in October 2011 and November 2012, the board members were paid €15,450 in allowances and €6,591 in travel and subsistence at a total cost for the board of €22,000, which I accept is a modest figure. However, the Department is paying for that board, its departmental staff are providing its administrative support, students do not really know about it and the Secretary General is now going to inquire whether they are even informed about it. The Department already has cut off their right to go to the Ombudsman by the manner in which it established SUSI at the outset. They can go to the Ombudsman next year, in year two, if they are still around and have not been obliged to withdraw from school.

However, the reply to the parliamentary question I tabled on 7 February 2013, only two weeks ago, indicated that at that stage, 62 appeals had been received and dealt with by the board, only four of which were overturned. Out of the 2,000 people who were refused by the SUSI internal appeals system, very few knew about the existence of this board but only four people have had their decisions overturned by that independent board. It appears to be simply rubber-stamping what is coming into it.

Then it stated that a further 37 cases would be dealt with in the meeting on 13 February and a further 28 would be due for consideration on 12 March.

In the height of all of this, the board is meeting only once a month to consider appeals and students are dropping out of college because they are not getting their grants. I have before me the timetable of the meetings of the board. Students who do not make it in for the February meeting are told they must wait for a month. Then it transpires only four out of 62 have been successful in this board. In this case, it seems totally staked against the student. Some 2,000 have been refused. Mr. Ó Foghlú does not even know whether the students are made aware of the appeals board. Very few go to the board. Of those who do, only four were successful up to February. Now we find the Department had also cut off a citizen's right to go to the Ombudsman. Whoever set up this system specifically excluded that. It was not fair to students the way this was constructed.