Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will speak briefly about the meeting between the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection and SUSI officials which was attended by Deputies McConalogue and O'Brien, among others. We arranged the meeting because our constituents have raised concerns about the system with individual Deputies and Senators. Unlike in previous years, we were able to bring in a single grant authority so that we could ask questions and make suggestions. While the answers may not always have brought satisfaction, it was an informative meeting. The Oireachtas is now able to hold the new single unit directly accountable and it also has a direct link to the Minister. While I am generally in favour of local government, we did not have the same relationship with the local authorities, some of which were more reticent at providing information than others.

The system has encountered a number of hiccups and problems. The chief executive officer of SUSI, Jacinta Stewart, admitted that mistakes were made and agreed that the scale of the task had been underestimated. However, the situation is no worse than in previous years. I dealt with many constituents who did not get their grants on time. Sometimes students were still waiting for their grants as they prepared for their exams in May. There were long delays in the past and the current figures are similar. The problem is that SUSI was established to streamline the system and to provide greater efficiency. There is much room for improvement, therefore. When grants were provided by 66 different bodies, they dealt with their own applications and we as representatives raised problems with the local authorities and VECs in our constituencies. The problems were dispersed, whereas now that they are concentrated in one authority they have become more visible. People may disagree with me when I say the problem is no worse than before but that is my impression.

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