Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister to the committee. I look forward to working with him on what is an extremely important Department. I thank him for taking the opportunity to appear before the committee well in advance of the budgetary negotiations to outline his position.

Education has to be a important aspect of our future economic foundation and of a strong and healthy society. As such it is one of the key areas that must be protected in the current environment where there are many budgetary pressures. We are aware of the effects that the cuts introduced in the past and those introduced by the Minister last year have had on the education system. Given that pay and pensions account for 78% of spending, I understand the difficulty for the current side of expenditure.

Some of the initiatives announced by the Minister last year were disappointing in light of commitments given by him previously, particularly the decision to remove the maintenance grant to students, one third of whom benefited in the past and, as a result, would have been exempt from fees. I raised the issue in the House yesterday as well as the issue of the post graduate loan deal which the Minister has endorsed from the Bank of Ireland, which is the only source for many of those students to fund their post graduate education at a high interest rate of 10.8%. As I said yesterday, that was a poor deal on behalf of the Minister given that he encouraged students to take up that loan.

In regard to the €77 million the Minister is seeking to find in this year's budget from current expenditure, how much of that amount includes initiatives already announced, such as continuing decreases to capitation fees to schools and the student registration fee, which he plans to increase by €250 in the next two to three years, and additional initiatives?

What is the Minister's position on maintenance grants? Prior to the last general election, the Labour Party and Fine Gael indicated they would establish a student loan facility. What is the Government's policy on that issue? Will the Minister give an assurance there will be no change to the maintenance grants system for undergraduate students, given the additional pressures on families due to increased fees?

On the issue of special needs, last year and this year there have been real difficulties at primary level for students who need that additional assistance to keep up and stay within the education system. What are the Minister's plans for special needs students in the budget to ensure they will be protected?

In regard to changes made to the school transport scheme last year, following a query to the Department we were unable to ascertain the budgetary savings. In fact, the response from the Minister of State, Deputy Ciarán Cannon, in the House was that it was not yet possible to be clear as to what the savings might be. The changes I refer to are that students are required to travel to their nearest school only. I ask the Minister to revisit that issue as in many cases there will be no saving to the Department. The number of families affected is relatively small but it is causing a real difficulty to them with no real budgetary impact. It is within the Minister's power to address the issue in the run-up to the budget.

An issue which has been topical in recent days is the Minister's response to the move by Clare County Council to attach payment of the household charge to the issuing of a third level grant. The Minister's casual response was irresponsible. In effect, he is abdicating responsibility for determining the terms of the maintenance grant to local authorities whose role is to administer it. The job of deciding who is eligible for a maintenance grant is that of the Minister. When a county council, whose role is to administer it, decides to attach additional conditions to it, and the Minister's response is that it is okay, that is an irresponsible approach. Why should that be a condition in one council area and not in others? Why should it be a condition in Clare but not a condition for applying to the Student Universal Support System, SUSI, administered by the Minister?