Ms Alisha Houlihan:

Good morning members, I come from Kiltimagh, County Mayo. I come from a single parent family and I am a full-time second year journalism and visual media scholarship student at Griffith College Dublin. I thank the joint committee for the kind invitation to attending this hearing.

First, we welcome the statement of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, that he proposes to reintroduce grants for part-time post-graduate students but he has forgotten us. We are Wake Up SUSI. We represent about 200 students, eligible for SUSI funding, who applied via the CAO for a full-time QQI validated degree at State recognised institutions that award up to masters level 9 on the NFQ. Our students, from low-income and single parent families, want the same State funding as other third level students attending similar QQI approved institutions. We are not the so-called privileged students that attend private colleges.

In the past 12 months, we have met SUSI, the HEA, civil servants from the Departments of Education and Skills and Public Expenditure and Reform and over 30 members of the Seanad and Dáil, some of whom kindly tabled parliamentary questions on our behalf. The recently published Cassells report on the funding of higher education recommends that low-income families whose children choose to attend private colleges should receive SUSI funding. Following publication of this report, we met with the Minister, Deputy Bruton. He spent over 35 minutes with us and listened to our case. The Minister noted that Cassells recommended that SUSI grants be extended to our eligible students but he said that he would not make a decision in that regard until this committee had reported to him on the Cassells report.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are in your hands. We are worried and concerned that in the committee's deliberations on the Cassells report all the attention will be on the issue of student loans and our case will be missed. We are heartened that we have been invited here today. We hope that the committee will support us as the Minister, Deputy Bruton, made it clear he will listen to the committee's recommendations.

I am accompanied this morning by other members of the Wake Up SUSI committee. I will shortly ask each of them to make a one-minute statement on how this inequity is affecting them and their families. My first question for the committee is how can SUSI not give those of us from single-parent families and low-income households our entitlement? How can the State on the one hand fund private secondary schools to the tune of over €100 million a year, encourage private health care, private transport and private media and ignore our discrimination?We are not here on behalf of the colleges we attend: we want funding for our QQI full-time course. Essentially, we are looking for equality for Irish students regardless of the institution they attend.

My second question is why are we being discriminated against for having chosen to undertaken a QQI full-time degree course at a reputable private college? We chose Griffith College, the Dublin Business School and the Irish College of Humanities and Applied Sciences because of their reputations and their ability to nurture the student with smaller classes and excellent student supports. Why can we not be treated in the same way as other students attending non-State owned institutions such as the Royal College of Surgeons and National College of Ireland? We have learned that some students attending for-profit colleges such as BIMM, The Sound Training Centre and Setanta College, which are all very reputable and excellent institutions have been lucky enough to get all their entitlement as their degrees are awarded by institutes of technologies. Our degrees are awarded by QQI.QQI degrees have the same currency as all other degrees awarded in this country. I welcome the opportunity to highlight this point again in our discussion this morning.

We thank the joint committee for the invitation to attend this meeting and we ask that it make an early recommendation to the Minister, Deputy Bruton, as some of the students we represent are dependent on the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, hand-outs and credit unions to complete their education. Some students have approached the HEA for assistance under its student hardship fund but they were refused as they are not covered by the SUSI scheme.

Imagine trying to pay €600 a month for a room in Dublin without a SUSI grant or access to the HEA's student assistance fund.

I thank the committee for listening to me. I shall introduce each member of our committee who will speak for roughly one minute each. They are as follows: Ms Emma O'Sullivan, who is from Cork and is president of the Dublin Business School students' union; Mr. Pierce Connolly from Roscommon, who is president of the Griffith College students' union in Dublin and is the founder of this campaign; Mr. James Roberts from Cork, who is a Quality and Qualifications Ireland psychology student at Dublin Business School; Ms Suzanne Quin from Raheny, who is a Dublin law student attending Griffith College, Dublin; and Mr. Martin Byrne from Limerick, who is a counselling student at the Irish College of Humanities and Applied Sciences, ICHAS. I call on Ms O'Sullivan to commence her contribution.