Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

agrees that:- the new Student Universal Support Ireland central on-line system for processing student grants is failing abysmally to meet what is required for over 65,000 applications and this is causing undue hardship for third-level students awaiting payments; and

- sufficient extra staffing should be supplied immediately to correct this on-going problem so that student grants can be issued by Christmas;recognises that third-level students are facing year-on-year increases in their registration fees which are unfair and unjust in light of a promised reduction in these fees; and

calls on the Government to:- refrain from further cuts to the education budget and increases in third-level registration fees;

- ensure that all children who require Special Needs Assistants are provided with them;

- reinstate the Career Guidance Teacher provision; and

- preserve funding to Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools programme schools.

This motion aims to ensure that the Government moves immediately to address the growing crisis it has overseen in the administration of student grants. It also asks that the Government keeps the solemn promises it made to students in return for their votes in the midst of the general election campaign and seeks to get the agreement of the Dáil to protect the resourcing of education in the upcoming budget in recognition of the fact that young people in Ireland are entitled to an education and that education should be a key platform on which we build a successful country.

Much progress has been made in education in recent years but we must build on that. In the past decade we witnessed a transformation in the provision of education to children and young people with special needs. From a very small base at the end of the 1990s steady progress has ensured the employment of 10,000 special needs assistants catering for the care needs of children who require their help. There are now approximately 9,600 learning support and resource teachers in our primary and post-primary schools providing essential teaching support to pupils with special educational needs.

We have seen significant strides taken in ensuring our young people complete second level education. That is evidenced by the publication last week of a report by the Department of Education and Skills showing that 90% of students beginning secondary school in 2005-06 went on to complete their education to leaving certificate level in 2010-11. That is an increase of 9% compared to 11 years previously. Much of that progress was greatly assisted by the investment in our DEIS schools where the school retention rate increased significantly from 68% to 80%.

At third level, Ireland has moved rapidly up the ranks of OECD countries in terms of the higher education attainment levels of its adult population, with one third of adults now qualified to higher education level. We must ensure that progress continues to be built upon. That will take strong resolve and clear prioritisation of the education budget and ensuring that we continue to fund education properly. That will not come easily, but it is something we must do.

While many of the challenges facing us will take real effort to achieve, something that should have been entirely manageable was ensuring that those students at third level who were eligible for a maintenance grant got paid it on time. As that was so manageable with the right effort, it is a scandal that we are here tonight discussing this issue with over 45,000 students of the 66,000 who applied still waiting to hear whether they will qualify for a maintenance grant let alone be paid their first instalment.

This crisis has been growing for many weeks but despite the continuing hardship being experienced by students awaiting their grant, the Minister, Deputy Quinn, has inexcusably refused to take control of a project which is his responsibility to deliver. He had no problem stepping up to the podium in early June to announce the creation of Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI. He said at that time that the process is quick and easy and that many students had to wait lengthy periods for their grants in the past and face undue hardship as a result of those delays. He said that this new system would erase those delays. He boasted how 65 staff would now do the work previously carried out by the 66 local authorities, 33 vocational education committees and 33 county councils, and how it was a prime example of real public service reform.

At the start of June SUSI was definitely and proudly the political baby of the Minister, Deputy Quinn, but how things have changed. Today, the Minister is scrambling to put the blame for the failure of SUSI on anyone but himself. Once the initial public relations glow disappeared the Minister, Deputy Quinn, no longer had an interest. As a result of the way this crisis has grown recently, the Oireachtas education committee invited representatives of SUSI to come before it today to examine the situation and how we can get out of it. As part of that I put the question to the chief executive officer of the vocational education committee as to the number of times the Minister had met personally with SUSI to discuss this situation but the CEO was not in a position to confirm to me that she had sat down with the Minister on this issue in the months since SUSI was established and this problem has been growing.

The staff and management of SUSI confirmed to us in committee that as of today, 13 November, only 3,010 students of the 66,000 who have applied for a grant - less than 5% - have been paid their grant. They also confirmed that only 20,000 of that 66,000 have had their applications processed to final stage whereby a decision has been made, and almost half of those have been refused whereas approximately 10,000 have had an indication that they will be awarded a grant. Of the remainder, with six weeks to go to Christmas, over 40,000 students who applied to SUSI either have got correspondence from it asking for further documentation or in the case of half of that 40,000 their applications have not even been checked by SUSI to determine if it has all the documentation.

What did the Minister have to say about that? This morning on "Morning Ireland" he stated that he was not entirely sure why there was a delay. This is the Minister's project to deliver. Real reform is not just about standing up on the podium and making a grand announcement. It is about taking responsibility for it and making sure it happens. The Minister should have sat down with SUSI, which the Minister appointed to do this job and which was obviously getting it wrong, long ago to examine where things were going wrong and to ensure the thousands of students across the country who are waiting on their grant and who are struggling, along with their families, got paid. Only 3,010 of the 66,000 have been paid their grant and they are struggling. They have instalments to meet in regard to their student accommodation. They have not been able to register properly in college. In recent weeks many of them had little more than visitor rights in the colleges they attend. They are still photocopying books because they do not have full loan rights in libraries. They are now facing into their Christmas examinations without having been able to register fully at college.

The Minister has washed his hands of that. Instead of taking control he first tried to avoid the issue until he could avoid it no more and it became such a crisis that he had to comment on it. What did he then do? All of a sudden SUSI was no longer the Minister's responsibility; it was somebody else's responsibility. He pointed the finger at City of Dublin VEC and blamed it entirely, washing his hands of it even to the extent that he stated this morning he was not sure what was going on.

Unfortunately, what we found out in committee today from the SUSI representatives was that despite having taken on additional staff it is almost impossible to work out a strategy or a pathway as to how the students currently waiting on their maintenance grant will be paid.

The Minister and the Taoiseach claim these students will somehow be paid by Christmas. If the Minister teased out the issue as the education committee did today, he would ask how we can process these claims when half the 40,000 students in question have not had their packs checked while the system is still awaiting documentation from the other half. We also found out today that since it was established, Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, has handled 175,000 telephone calls for 66,000 applications. This works out at three calls per application on average. SUSI has 92 staff, 65 staff of its own and 27 from an outsourced agency responsible for scanning the documents. The volume of phone calls with that number of staff works out at 2,000 calls per member of staff. If the Minister had to field that number of calls, how would he manage to do any work at all?

This is the type of crisis that has been under way in SUSI while the Minister has paid it no attention. I hope in this debate the Minister will finally take responsibility for this. Has he met SUSI in recent weeks to take control of this issue and examine it the way the education committee did today? I presume he would have arranged to meet the agency representatives when they were in Leinster House today. It is long past when that should have happened. It at least needs to happen now.

How will the Minister ensure those students who need their grant payments will get them between now and Christmas? From looking in great detail at the way SUSI has operated, it seems it does not have a pathway to ensure these students will be paid by Christmas. If the Minister also examined it in detail, he would see that too. Political responsibility needs to be taken and the Minister must ensure additional measures are taken in order that students will be paid. Up until now targets have not been met. Why should we believe the aspirations expressed today will be met? It is the Minister’s responsibility to assess and make a judgment on this. If he believes payments will not be made between now and Christmas, which I believe is the case, he must ensure additional measures will be taken.

SUSI is only processing first-time applicants while county council and vocational education committee staff process existing students. The latter are almost finished those applications. There is a real opportunity to engage those staff on a once-off basis to get assistance in dealing with SUSI’s backlog and ensure students do not have to suffer any longer. However, the Minister has not yet taken the responsibility or the initiative which would see proper control taken of the situation. Coming out of this, I hope we will see a plan from the Minister.

It is unfortunate this is the first time the Minister has discussed this matter in the Chamber. The first and only time I ever heard the Minister comment on it was on "Morning Ireland" last week when he could not avoid commenting on it anymore.

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