Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)

This is a cost-cutting exercise. The Minister referred to increasing numbers and the grants. She has already reduced the grants across the board by 4% and now she says that due to the numbers factor she must curtail them. She has introduced two changes, in particular, that relate to mature students. They totally contradict what the Government has been saying for so long about upskilling for people who have lost their jobs or whatever and are returning to education. A total of 7,000 of those people will lose out substantially as a result of these changes. They were automatically entitled to the non-adjacent grant.

Second, there is the issue of the increase of the distance from the college for the adjacent and non-adjacent grants, which will affect 18,000 students. Is the Minister expecting students to live at home? She said 45% of students live in their homes during the term. Does she expect them to make a round trip of 90 km per day to go to college as a result of the extension from 24 km to 45 km?

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