Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

We are very lucky we have such a high standard of colleges in this country. It is very important that we keep the funding in place for our third level colleges. I encourage the business sector to get involved. In the past, that sector supported some colleges and there is nothing wrong with major businesses making funding available so that our students get the best opportunity when they go to those colleges. In the past ten years, people came back to work in this country and people did not emigrate. The day is ahead when more and more students who qualify in this country will be looking for work abroad. We must ensure they are educated and equipped to take up whatever challenges are there. We saw the job losses yesterday at Dell. This is a worrying development because we are talking about high-tech jobs and well trained people. In the past, one could walk from one job to another but that is not the situation now. It is important for us to keep with it in respect of education.

I am from a rural constituency in County Mayo, which has the highest number of people who have left the county and taken up third level education. I have seen parents in the past whose one wish was that their sons or daughters would get the opportunity to go to a third level college. I have seen parents work very hard on very low incomes to ensure their children got the opportunity they did not get.

I will deal first with the payment of grants. In recent years, parents have been sending their children to college in September. In some cases, these students only receive their grants in November, December or even the following year. There were 66 bodies dealing with this and that number will be reduced to 33. I hope that the staff and resources will be put in place to ensure that the commitment given in this Bill that these students and their parents will get the grant aid in time is honoured. These people, particularly households with children going to primary, secondary or third level education, have many outgoings in September, October and November. In some cases, this puts great pressure on the household when it is waiting for the grant aid and trying to subsidise their child in respect of their accommodation, a subject I will address later. It is important that we get this right this time and that the staff are put in place. If staff had been put in place in local authorities and VECs, we would not be dealing with this Bill today. There is no point in passing this Bill if we do not provide the resources and staff and give institutions the manpower to ensure these grants are paid on time and dealt with as quickly as possible.

I am glad to see that in this Bill the Minister talks about streamlining application forms. One would nearly need a degree to fill out the application forms for a disabled person's grant in the local authority area in which I live. The same is true for the application forms in the case of special housing aid for the elderly . Why can we not simplify the system? There is only one issue at the end of the day and that boils down to finances. There is a ceiling in respect of these grants and if one exceeds it, one does not get the grant. There is no need to put people through hoops in respect of the kind of information they must obtain for Departments, local authorities and the HSE. It does not make sense. I hope the bodies will be given the resources and money and that students will have their grants paid on time.

Every year, I encounter a problem in respect of mature students applying for third level grants. Another category is now being caught, namely, young women with children who return to the education system. They do their leaving certificate, qualify for college and are tested. A recent case involved a girl who had been independent since she was 17. She had a baby when she was 19 and went back and did her leaving certificate. When she applied for her third level grant, her parents' income was taken into account. It is time to change this. This girl is a lone parent who was getting rent allowance and living on her own means. She had no real contact with her family because of certain problems. She was a person in her own right. That application could not be dealt with simply because the income of her father and mother had to be taken into account. That must be changed quickly.

It is important that we make it easy for this young girl and girls like her all over this country if they have a child and want to continue their education. It is important that we educate these people because it is far better to educate them and get them into the workplace than have them on social welfare for the rest of their lives. It is very important that we give them every opportunity, make life easier for them and give them the chance to get back into the workforce.

In respect of the guidelines and the cut-off point, not enough credence is given to a family that has more than one child in third level education. The guidelines should be massively increased. It is difficult enough for somebody with a good income to have one child in third level education. Over the years, I have seen families on very poor incomes with two or three children in third level education. The guidelines should be increased because there is not enough for parents who have two or three children in third level institutions. It is important the Department deals with that and changes the guidelines.

Up to 2007, if a person in a household earned over €18,000, they did not get the top-up grant. If one had ten or 12 children, the cut-off point was still €18,000. This must be looked at. The top-up grant is vital for people on low incomes, whatever hope they have, because they just do not have the resources and income. The top-up grant is a social welfare-related payment and it is important that it is looked at. It is important for us to give these people a chance to get their children into third level education, make it easier for them and try to help and support them. I hope the Government looks at this in respect of third level fees overall. It is very important because the grant does not really cover anything. It only supports people. Parents must find deposits and must help their children with food and transport costs when they travel to cities because the day when one could leave a student without money has passed. One cannot have students wandering the streets of Dublin or Galway. It is wrong that we are forcing parents and students to work to educate themselves.

There is a time to work and a time for education. If a student has the opportunity to be in third level education, all their time, resources and energy should be put into getting educated rather than being forced to go out to work to raise the necessary resources to keep them in third level institutions. It is time we looked at that.

I, like everybody else, was at the briefing with the Union of Students in Ireland. It is important that we have the necessary accommodation for students. We have seen "Prime Time" programmes on accommodation. It is very important that these children get the best accommodation because at the end of the day, they are paying very well for it. It is very important that the Government and the State provides as much student accommodation as possible. The union is looking for a recommendation in respect of setting up a student accommodation task force. The Government gave a commitment that it would do this and I hope it is done quickly because it is very important to ensure that we get the best accommodation we can. We have seen in the past and recent reports have shown that students in very bad accommodation can suffer from poor mental health. It is wrong that people trying to be educated should have to live in poor conditions. It is important that we get the best accommodation we can for them.

I welcome this Bill and hope it will be passed in the Dáil in the coming days. I hope it goes to Committee Stage, that it will be dealt with before the summer and that all its recommendations will be ready for next September. It is important that we support our third level institutions. It is important that they get the funding because without a well educated workforce and facilities to match universities all over the world, we have no chance. The people of this country have always been well educated. Having listened to the views of people involved in the educational sector in recent years, I understand we have fallen back a little in this respect. It is important the necessary funding is provided by Government and that the best people are in place to educate our young people.

Rather than those involved in big business investing in the racing industry and other such industries, they should support third level colleges with the provision of funding and assistance in whatever way possible, as it is in their interests and that of this country that we have a well educated workforce. I would like more companies to invest in disadvantaged areas, to identify areas where they could provide grant aid to support students to go to third level colleges, pay for their accommodation needs and whatever costs they incur in their college education. That is important. In that way, they would be doing a good job for society. They could consider investing in disadvantages areas in Cork, Mayo, Dublin, Kerry and places where young people may not have the best opportunities.

I know students who attained the necessary points but did not have the necessary resources or support to go to third level college. That is wrong. If students have the brains and attain the necessary points, it should not be a matter of money that prevents them from going to college. They should be assisted. Companies should consider providing funding to colleges and supporting young people who need assistance to go to college. It is important that we have a well educated society for the future.

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