Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Like previous Deputies, today's engagement at the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection was an important step towards trying to resolve this issue. It is unfortunate it had to come to this, but, nevertheless, the fact we had SUSI officials before the committee today went some way towards explaining some of the issues relating to the backlog.

I cannot speak on behalf of any other Deputy or Senator who attended the committee meeting, but I found the engagement with the SUSI CEO and the other two officials unsatisfactory. I felt many of the questions posed went unanswered. For example, it took almost two hours to get the information from the CEO that all of the resources SUSI asked for from the Minister were put in place. There was a complete lack of understanding on the part of the SUSI officials of the hardship facing tens of thousands of students. For example, during the debate one of the SUSI officials, Mr. Tom Prizeman, stated he could guarantee no documentation was being lost. He stated that SUSI had only received one official complaint of a lost document among all the applicants who had forwarded documentation. This is incredible. We have received many e-mails from students who sent in documentation and who were asked to resend their documentation. Some of the e-mails state the students were told the documentation had been misplaced. Therefore, I do not accept the comment that documentation has not been lost.

Most of the problem was caused by the decision to outsource to a company in Cork responsibility for scanning the documents into electronic format and sending them on to SUSI. There is no doubt that documentation has gone missing. It was suggested at today's committee meeting that Dublin VEC underestimated the size of the task it was undertaking. I think the Minister is responsible for this area. Obviously, awarding criteria were used when a decision was made on the operation of SUSI. Perhaps the initial criteria were flawed, or else they are not being met by Dublin VEC. Nobody can dispute the contention that this process has ended in disaster. Students are facing real hardship.

Although I welcome the apology that the Minister extended to students tonight, we need more than an apology now. The Minister has said he will raise the issue of SUSI's staffing resources when he meets the CEO tomorrow. Like other Deputies, I do not believe the number of staff currently dealing with this issue within SUSI will be enough to get through all the applications by December, as the Minister hopes. On the basis of the figures we were given today for the number of packs SUSI can process and the number of SUSI staff dealing with this matter, it is just not credible to suggest it is possible. When the Minister meets those officials tomorrow, he should ask them to go through how SUSI proposes to get through 30,000 applications between now and the end of December.

The Minister mentioned that he has twice instructed the Higher Education Authority to ensure that colleges do not place students at a disadvantage as a result of these problems. He said that "the HEA has written to all higher education institutions to convey this message on two occasions". Perhaps the letters written by the HEA were not stiff enough, or else they are being ignored by the colleges. The reality is that students in those colleges are being denied access to vital resources and facilities. I received an e-mail from a student who could not access the laboratory and as a result was unable to submit an assignment as part of a course. We have heard about students who have received letters from their colleges warning them that a late penalty charge will be imposed on them if they do not pay the registration charge by a certain date, or if the colleges do not receive confirmation from SUSI that the students in question are eligible for the registration. This is the stuff our students are facing.

I would like to read extracts from two e-mails I received from students. It is important for the voices of students to be heard during tonight's debate. The first e-mail is from a mature student:

My college on the 17th of October refused me access to vital resources which I needed for my course. This left me unable to access any lab assignments and notes that I needed for projects which were due to be handed up. I struggled on hoping to hear that SUSI had awarded me tuition fees, but then I got a letter asking for further documentation. Upon receiving this letter and speaking to SUSI on the phone, I knew that I would be at least another month if not longer waiting to hear back from their office. As I had already been blocked access from my college to vital facilities and resources, there was no other option for me but to leave my course. I was hoping to start a degree in my chosen discipline. I was hoping to start a new chapter in my life, hoping to better myself in these tough economic times for the sake of my two children - not only for their future but also for my own. This dream has now been dashed due to the inadequate system of SUSI.

That is just one example of a student who has been forced to leave her course because she was denied access to facilities on her campus. We have been told tonight that the HEA wrote to every third level institution twice to instruct them to ensure that would not happen, but it is happening. The Minister needs to take that up with the HEA tomorrow.

The other e-mail from which I would like to read is an important one. We heard tonight about people who have been awarded grants but are facing difficulties because they are being given the wrong rates. There has been confusion about the adjacent and non-adjacent rates. A resident of Cork who is doing a nursing course e-mailed me to tell me of being awarded an adjacent grant despite studying in Dundalk. As a result, the person in question cannot pay rent or put food on the table. The e-mail states:

I received a letter approving me of my maintenance grant, and then I read on. I was to get the adjacent rate and I am far from adjacent. I live 100 km from the college. I phoned SUSI and was told by a nice lady not to worry, that there had obviously been a mistake and do not appeal the decision, that we will review it.

This particular student was told they would hear back within two or three days. Five days later, after receiving no phone call back, the student rang SUSI again, only to be told "sorry, we gave you the wrong information, you actually have to appeal the decision". The person was initially told not to appeal because it would be sorted out as part of the review. When they rang back five days later, they were told to appeal. The principal officer of SUSI told today's committee meeting that there is no need to appeal in cases in which adjacent and non-adjacent grants have been allocated wrongly because a review process is in place. It is obvious that the officials who are working on the helpline do not know that, however. One member of the support staff said not to appeal, but when the person in question rang back, a different member of the support staff said to appeal. I do not think the staff know the procedures with regard to some of the grants that have been awarded.

It is all well and good to say there is a target of getting through all the applications and awarding as many grants as possible to those who are entitled to them. Some students are going to have to come back to appeal decisions. Some 1,100 appeals have been submitted to date in respect of grants which have been awarded. Some 600 of those appeals are still outstanding. No timeframe has been put in place for when those 600 appeals will be finalised. There is a bigger problem here. When the Minister speaks to representatives of SUSI tomorrow, he should go through line-by-line how they propose to get through all of these applications by Christmas. In addition, he should engage with the Higher Education Authority again to instruct colleges and third level institutes not to penalise students because that is happening.

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