Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I am glad to see this phenomenon is not only in my house.

The system has now reached the point at which it is possible for young people who want to go forward to go all the way to postgraduate courses at university by availing of PLC courses and so on, irrespective of where they start from. I know what I am talking about. It is a credit to everybody concerned that the possibility is there for people who are prepared to persevere.

To return to the Bill before us, I have no objection to rejigging the administrative aspects of the disbursement of third level grants. As a public representative I have dealt with the VEC in Galway and Galway County Council for many years, and I have never found them to be other than co-operative and extremely interested in what they are doing. However, there are a few aspects I am concerned about. Over the years I have not been able to understand why things could not be done differently from an administrative point of view. I hope this will change under the new system. I notice that the academic year 2008-09 will not be affected by the changes in the Bill and the county councils will still deal with the universities and the VECs with the ITs.

One of the things I cannot understand — this Minister stands indicted in this area as well as everyone else — is why the application forms cannot be posted out in the early part of the year, around March or April, to allow students to apply for grant aid. This would ensure that the administrative problems associated with the arrival of thousands of applications do not occur at a crucial point in the months of August and September, when the grants should be made available. Last year the current Minister for Education and Science gave an undertaking in the House that the applications would be out much earlier last year than any other year, but this did not happen. The ruaille buaille in the local authorities and the VECs was the same as ever when they received large volumes of applications at once, and they found it impossible to have the approvals ready by the time the colleges opened. Whatever about the new legislation, I hope this will not happen this year. I can see no administrative reason for it. I am not involved in that side of it now but I assume the computer systems can cope with earlier applications. We have so many computers talking to each other nowadays that I cannot for the life of me imagine why it cannot be done.

The means test income limit is another area of concern. I do not have time to develop this point but I could talk about it all day. I do not think that €38,675 between two parents is a sufficiently high cut-off point for full grant eligibility. We all know about the graduation that is down the line, although I do not have time to talk about that. An income of slightly more than €38,000 is very small if both parents are working, as it corresponds to €19,000 each, which is just above the social welfare limit. If there are two or three children living in a household with an income of €45,000 or €50,000 they would not get full grants but only partial grants. On an income that is only slightly higher again, all the children will receive is the amount of the registration fee. This means untold misery for many families. They are not even the new poor. At that income level, they are poor anyway. They must pay for childminding, the mortgage and so on, and then they are hit with this at a sensitive stage.

I am not talking about tricking around with 5% or similar. The figure needs to be substantially increased. If it is not, there will be two main effects. People who are academically capable of going on to higher education will be prevented from doing so and, worse than that, youngsters will be pressurised into taking jobs. When young people start to work in supermarkets and such places, they achieve a level of independence they should not have. The minute they get money in their pockets they think the world is at their feet and it is only ten years later, when they have missed their educational chance, that they see it was the wrong decision to make. They do not know this when they make the decision. This is why the income limit of €38,675 needs to be substantially increased. The full grant is €3,420 per student. One would imagine that should be increased, although I know the State does not have infinite resources. However, if more people in the category I am talking about could get the full grant it would represent substantial progress.

I understand the Bill contains provisions for an appeals mechanism. I often experienced clashes of interpretation between the local authority and the Department and have spent many an hour on the phone with Galway County Council and then with the Department attempting to clarify what is or is not accepted as income. I did not get an answer most of the time because one of these would start playing the other off. The only people to lose at the finish were the students. I always thought the VEC and the county council were just agents for the Department.

I hope the appeals mechanism in the Bill will allow a parent or mature student to argue his or her case to somebody who can make a decision on behalf of the local administering body, henceforth the VEC, and the Department. That person or persons, whoever they are, will be very busy if the appeals mechanism is what it should be.

Everything should be done for people who wish to re-enter the education system, including single mothers, people over 23 who have been employed, and so on. Whatever else we achieve through this Bill, measures to get people back into education will pay for themselves a thousand times over.

See this speech in context