Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil le mo chomhghleacaí, an Teachta McConalogue, as ucht na hoibre atá déanta aige. I thank Deputy Charlie McConalogue for bringing this motion to the House. I pay tribute also to Deputy Joanna Tuffy who, as Chairman of the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection, ensured, along with Deputy McConalogue, that SUSI executives were brought to account yesterday afternoon.

I agree with the Minister of State that the apology from the Minister, Deputy Quinn, is welcome. However, the difficulty we have is that the Government amendment displays the same arrogance that blinded it to the problems of SUSI right up until yesterday when the SUSI representatives appeared at the committee and before Deputy McConalogue's motion came before the House. It must not be forgotten that last Thursday the Tánaiste sat where the Minister of State is sitting now and more or less said there was no problem, that it would be fine and that all the money would be paid out. The Government has now realised, after some sort of conversion over the weekend, the full extent of the problem.

The problem has not gone away despite the Minister's apology. The Minister of State has confirmed on the record of the Dáil that 33,000 people will receive their grants by the end of December. If he is not sure about that, I ask him to clarify it now. Unfortunately, there are 66,000 applications. What about the other 33,000 students who have to submit information? They are still in college and they want to know if they can return after the Christmas break. They will need library access, but we still do not know their position. If one is unlucky enough not to be on the pile that is dealt with before SUSI goes on its Christmas holidays, when will one's case be dealt with?

This is the problem with this issue and that is why Fianna Fáil will not go away on it. We will continue to ensure SUSI, Student Universal Support Ireland, and its Government parent are held to account for the lack of delivery in the system.

The Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, must ask why we are here again. At the same time as SUSI was being planned and the Minister, Deputy Quinn, was doing up his press statements, we were debating in this House the debacle of the centralisation of the medical card system. The same issues applied in that case such as not enough staff, too much information required, information being lost and not enough communication with stakeholders in the system. At the same time as these problems were apparent in the medical card system, the Department of Education and Skills was planning the roll-out of SUSI. Surely, someone in the Department must have thought the same could happen to SUSI. Did anyone in the Department get out of their glasshouse and think to talk to officials in the Department of Health? Surely the Minister of State, knowing from his constituency work dealing with medical card applications, must have thought about putting a similar problem happening with the SUSI roll-out on the table at a ministerial management meeting. Surely, the Minister, Deputy Quinn, who is a little bit more isolated from reality than those of us serving constituencies, would have thought the same. However, they did not think to put this question. It is not purely their fault. Those departmental officials hiding behind the Ministers and SUSI need to be held to account as well for once again rolling out and implementing a flawed system as a result of which citizens of this Republic are tonight suffering. Once again, the faceless officials who run Government get away with it while the politicians and the delivery agencies are hung out to dry. If the Government does anything at all, it can at least put a stop to that.

The Minister of State claimed SUSI has all the staff it needs. It cannot if there are still 33,000 applications for which we do not have a target deadline for their completion. If SUSI is telling the Minister of State it has all the staff it needs, then that assumes he is comfortable in accepting there will be further delays in the system and people will have to wait until February, March or April to get their grant. If only Labour Members bothered to come into the Chamber for a debate on education - I cannot blame them for not coming in because there is nowhere to hide their blushes - I could quote them section 6.3.1(i) of the Croke Park agreement which states “it will be necessary from time to time to increase staffing in certain designated priority areas in accordance with government policy”. It continues, “redeployment of staff/posts may be necessary for temporary or long-term needs on foot of changing business patterns or priorities or to respond to urgent work demands.” What is more urgent than giving assurance to 33,000 applicants that they have a future in third level education after Christmas? The Minister cannot seriously tell us SUSI and Abtran, the company which only came into the equation yesterday and the Minister never told us about, are happy with their staffing levels but they cannot give us a deadline for when the entire grant applications for first-year students will be paid.

The Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, accused Deputy Ó Cuív of conspiracy theories. Deputy Browne and I attended a meeting in Wexford last night where the theory that the Government is deliberately delaying the paying out of grants was floated by a retired senior civil servant. If the Minister is serious about disproving the conspiracy theory, he should put the staff in the agencies to deal with those stuck in the quagmire of the grants system. It is not fair on the staff in SUSI. They are trying their best to engage with people affected but there is not enough of them nor is sufficient backup being given to them.

The one good point these 66,000 applicants having going for them is that they are the last class to have had proper guidance provision in school. I noted when the Minister was stating all his accomplishments, he did not mention that one. He did, however, mention the work his Department is doing on bullying in schools. Great work and great talk. When one takes the guidance counsellor who will deal with bullying out of the schools, as will happen next year, then all it will be is talk. Future SUSI applicants will be at a disadvantage because they will not benefit from guidance on third level applications and careers thanks to the Minister of State, the Minister, Deputy Quinn, and their colleagues in Fine Gael and Labour. There is no sense in the Minister of State talking about combating bullying, building up technology skills and career progression when the guidance counsellor, the engine for seeing all of this through, has been removed from schools because of Government cuts. Will the Government please reflect on this when it is making its forthcoming budget choices? As the Minister of State with responsibility for skills, Deputy Cannon must be aware the most of what the lack of proper guidance in our schools will do to our skills base. We are already having difficulty matching up skills to industry requirements. The Minister of State cannot make it worse by cutting off guidance counsellors.

Earlier I listened to a normally sensible Labour Deputy - I do not know what got into him tonight - talking about Fianna Fáil using this debate as its revision to populism. All I can see is the Minister, Deputy Quinn, climbing a ladder outside Trinity College Dublin with his little biro to put his name under a Union of Students in Ireland, USI, pledge not to reintroduce fees. This was the man who put himself forward as the economic guru of Labour, who understood the nation’s problems and would be a potential Minister for Finance after the last election. He understood the gravity of the challenge Fianna Fáil faced but he put his name to a pledge and told the USI he would be with them in their corner. He was no sooner in the door in the Department than he wished he had an eraser to rub his name off that pledge. That is the difficulty even with his apology last night. It is welcome. However, if one is to put a bet on a horse called Ruairí Quinn, one does not look at his track record if one wants to win.

The Minister of State must solve this issue. He cannot leave this Chamber tonight in the comfort of abandoning 33,000 student applicants. If he is serious, he will solve it. He must give us a deadline on when this backlog will be cleared for which we can hold SUSI and the Government to account.

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