John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McConalogue for tabling this motion on SUSI and student grant delays. Earlier this year - in June I believe - the Minister announced with great fanfare that SUSI had gone live. He was pictured in every national newspaper and on television and he contended SUSI would solve all the problems arising from having 66 grant-awarding authorities. He stated their problems would be a thing of the past. If we are honest, we must accept that SUSI was never going to solve the problems given that there are only 65 staff in Dublin to deal with 66,000 applications. There was no way the 65 staff could deal with so many applications and award the grants without delay.

There are many staff with considerable experience in the local authorities and VECs that used to allocate grants. They dealt with grant applications for years and they should be seconded into the SUSI system within the next week to deal with the backlog. They sometimes wonder what their role is now that there is no grant system in their areas. Surely their vast experience should be drawn upon. I suggest the Minister of State and Minister consider using the staff to help out in what has become a farcical set of circumstances.

There is a very good article in today's Irish Independentwritten by John Logue, president of the Union of Students in Ireland. It is not a political article but one outlining the facts with regard to the difficulties faced by students in not getting their grant approvals. They find they are unable to avail of many of the facilities within the college because they do not have a letter of approval. In the past, when the VECs and councils dealt with this issue, they would get the letter of approval to the student and the student could go to the credit union or bank and use it to acquire finance, but as John Logue pointed out in his article, that cannot happen now because they are not getting the letters from SUSI.

The Minister made great play last night about the fact that he had contacted all of the universities to tell them they were not to kick out the students, so to speak, but to be lenient. However, when I spoke to some members of the management of colleges in Waterford and Carlow, they said they needed the money to survive. It is important that the grants be paid as quickly as possible.

The Minister said the SUSI system would be foolproof and would eliminate the issue of incomplete applications, but we are being told now that SUSI has a large number of incomplete applications. I have come across many cases in which students are being told by SUSI that despite the fact that it has evidence that their applications were received, the applications have been mislaid and they are being asked to reapply.

The Minister might indicate in his reply how the appeals system will work. A huge number of appeals have been submitted to the Department. They have been put to one side because SUSI is trying to deal with the current applications, and it appears the appeals will not be dealt with until way into the new year. That will cause great hardship for students and their families and, if we are to be honest, we know it will lead to a situation in which many students will drop out because they do not have the finances to remain in the absence of approval from SUSI.

The Minister should second the people in the VECs and local authorities who have experience in this area to SUSI. I am sure they would be only too glad to come to Dublin and help out for three or four weeks to deal with the backlog.

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