Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

A Cheann Comhairle, I first raised this matter after a visit to the Labour Party advice centre that I run on Saturdays by a young student, Naoise McDonagh, on 30 January 2010. On 10 February, you allowed me to raise the matter on the Adjournment. The same Minister of State was here on that evening. I pointed out the consequences of removing support, as had been announced in the budget, from those who had a reasonable expectation that they had started on the reconstruction of their lives. Students who had taken an access course to prepare themselves for a degree course had every expectation that, if they were successful in the, sometimes, difficult task of getting through the access course, they could proceed to an undergraduate course. Suddenly and half way through their access course, they were told they could not receive the back to education allowance as well as their unemployment benefit or allowance.

They were, of course, devastated. I raised the matter on 10 February. They came to the Joint Committee on Education and Science on 20 May 2010 and made a positive proposal based on the simple fact that a person who is a graduate has a much better chance of becoming employed than a person who is not. They presented a researched proposal of what the savings to the State would be by making people like themselves more employable. The joint committee appeared to agree with them but the only concession that could be made was that individual hardship cases might be considered by the Minister for Social Protection. Here I am on 27 May, raising this issue again. What message does this give?

Appearing before the joint committee, the spokesperson gave three examples. The first was a woman with five children who does a round trip of 80 km to go back to education and reconstruct her life. The second was a man with three children who is doing the same thing and the third was a single man of 27. The 27 year old man said he had worked as a construction worker, found he was able to understand complex tasks and decided that, perhaps, he should go back and improve himself and qualify. He did that through the access course. Half way through the access course he was told he would not get the student maintenance grant and the back to education allowance.

The Minister for Finance, when responding to our letter regarding the drawing of ministerial pensions by Members of the Oireachtas when we proposed a single action that would affect everyone, said people had a reasonable expectation of a benefit to which they had contributed. These students had a reasonable expectation that, having gone to the access course, they could continue to a third level course and qualify.

Of 200 recently surveyed, between the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology and the National University of Ireland Galway, 100 suggested that they may drop out. What message does that send? In February, the Minister of State read a statement on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, and made reference to the four different sources of assistance the State gives to students. There is a €5 million student assistance fund for distressed students which covers 170,000 students. In Galway alone last year, 800 students applied for assistance and 400 got some form of assistance. The idea of saying that because that fund is there one can scrap this opportunity of returning to qualification is nonsense.

Let us look at what the students themselves suggested, for example, a mature student supplement. I think the Minister of State is a practical person. Consider a person who is receiving €196 per week, has dependants and must travel to avail of education. The man who came to me last week travels to college from a place in the middle of Connemara where there is no bus service. He has gone through all the difficulty of getting half way through his course and takes the extra cost of travel. One might say he can get a €500 book allowance, but this is all nonsense.

I appeal to the Minister of State to encourage those students who go to the trouble of going back to education, often having the experience of unemployment in the construction industry, rather than penalise them and force them to finance their education out of their meagre €196 per week. This is so outrageous.

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