John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to contribute to this motion and I welcome the fact Fianna Fáil and Deputy McConalogue have brought it forward. I want to focus in particular on the SUSI online system for grant applications. I raised this matter as a Topical Issue three weeks ago when I saw the problems emerging and when Members began to be contacted. As I said at that stage, while the leaving certificate means June is a huge month for students, August and September are even more traumatic in many ways because students must first get their results, then get their offer of college places, then go to the various towns and cities to their third level institutions to look for accommodation and then make their grant applications and wait for the results. In other words, they have a lot to be doing besides having to cope with trying to find lost documents and the kind of thing that has happened. In the middle of all of this, they are trying to check on the progress of their applications and are left hanging on telephones without getting replies and so on.

In the short term, the first point is to recognise there are major difficulties with the roll-out of the system. To be fair, the Minister and SUSI acknowledged that a number of weeks ago and in particular at the meeting of the Oireachtas committee yesterday.

With regard to the suggestion that the system has totally failed at this stage, the solution is to address the problems, and they have been addressed, although I agree with Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan's point that perhaps this has been reactive rather than proactive. At the same time, I remember sitting on the education committee during the term of the last Government and appealing to Ministers to get grants out at the end of March, and some students had in fact finished their summer exams by the time they received them. We must not forget the old system did not work that well either. In the short term, the solution is to put in the staff and to get this sorted. As I said, both the Minister and SUSI have acknowledged there is a problem, that mistakes have been made and that new targets need to be set. For example, there is a target that new decisions will be made on 5,000 applications in the coming days and that, by the end of December, all students who are successful will have their grants. That is the only thing within the control of SUSI and the Minister at this stage. If it is achieved, well and good, even if it is reactive.

The SUSI representatives told us yesterday about improving communications with students, including texting them and contacting them with regard to documentation that has been sought, but it is unacceptable that documentation for student appeals was lost. When I made an inquiry about a particular student who had made an appeal, there was no record of the appeal and it had to be sent in again.

I welcome the agreement of SUSI to take on board a suggestion I made in the House three weeks ago with regard to a tracking system similar to a passport application whereby, when a student makes an application, instead of hanging on a telephone or waiting for an e-mail reply, the student will be able to use a tracking system to see how the application is progressing. The student should also be able to see the position with regard to the getting direct information from the CAO, the Department of Social Protection and Revenue, and the data protection position in that regard.

What is vital is that all of the issues that have arisen this year should not happen again next year. I also welcome the fact the Minister has requested third level institutions not to disadvantage or discriminate against students as regards libraries, the sitting of exams and the like.

With regard to the overall education situation, it is a very difficult time but we must remember many good things have been happening in education this year, including the new junior certificate and the anti-bullying code that will be announced before the end of the year. While it is a challenging time, the Minister has got to grips with many of the issues that landed on his desk.

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