Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Deputy Healy that this effort to achieve further centralisation has proved to be a step too far. This new organisation does not have the experience to deal with these challenges and, clearly, is not able to cope with 66,000 applications, at least for now. I am not saying this is the fault of the staff in question, as it is clear that the Government should have put a bit more thought into the matter. I am sure every other Deputy in the House has, like me, been contacted by plenty of people who are worried sick about their kids who are caught in a predicament while they wait for answers and for funds to enable them to stay in college.

The father of a second-year psychiatric nursing student in Waterford Institute of Technology contacted me because he is worried that it looks like his son will have to pack in the course. When I examined the history of his application, I found the timescale involved a bit boggling. He applied for his SUSI grant in June 2012. He got acknowledgment of the receipt of the application five or six weeks later. There was no word after that until 10 October last, when SUSI contacted him to look for his results for first year and his acceptance letter for second year. He sent that information back two days later. Almost four weeks passed before he got acknowledgment of the receipt of those details on 8 November last.

It is clear that there is a massive problem in this regard. The Government should give serious consideration to the possibility of engaging local authority staff throughout the country, who have the expertise and experience to deal with these issues, to help SUSI to deal with the backlog. In the meantime, it must be possible to arrange some sort of short-term emergency funding to keep these kids in college. It is an absolute disaster for them. One has to pay for good service, like everything else in life, and if one does not, one will suffer the consequences.

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