Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will share time with Deputy Ó Laoghaire. I am encouraged by what the Minister and Minister of State have said today, on which I have some questions. Will they make a clear commitment to implement option 1 of the Cassells report which requires substantial increases in the level of State funding? Pushing the ever-increasing fees and escalating costs on to students and their families must stop, as the Minister and Minister of State recognise. Sinn Féin recently carried out a survey entitled Telling the Real Story. We heard from 1,022 students and I would like to share the findings of this research, much of which related to SUSI. The Minister recognised that SUSI needs to be reformed. There is a lot of good information in our document of which the Minister might take cognisance. Three out of four of the students who responded to our survey told us their families were experiencing financial stress and anxiety. Four out of five indicated they were concerned or extremely concerned that they will not have enough money to go to or remain in college. The SUSI grant system is supposed to help struggling students and their families. Too many of these struggling families are excluded.

I will give the example of two parents, one of whom is on an invalidity pension as a result of an accident while the other is on a disability payment having suffered a permanent injury. Both have been refused the SUSI grant based on income when the second spouse became eligible for a disability payment. That cannot be right. In the past month, hundreds of working parents have contacted our office outlining their financial circumstances, desperate that they cannot get access to SUSI and do not have the money to send their children to third level. Many of these people are front-line and essential workers, the people we clapped for because of the tremendous work they do, the personal risks they took and the sacrifices they made and we will ask them to make again in future. Will the Minister commit to using his statutory powers to expand and increase the SUSI grants at the first available opportunity?

Young people with autism are also excluded. Many of them need to study full-time online courses. Mature students with children are also assessed on parents' income. Young people who are estranged from their parents, who are often the most marginalised, are being told they do not qualify. We heard story after story of hardship and exclusion. These students do not qualify for support and are also forced to pay extortionate fees of €3,000. I hope the Minister will not try to push responsibility for this on to the third level institutions. The upper limit for fees is set by the Government in the full knowledge that the colleges will have to charge that amount. Does the Minister accept that in practical terms fees are set by the Government, rather than the institutions? I welcome the Minister's recent acceptance that fees are too high but he will forgive me for being a bit sceptical. We all remember the Labour Party education spokesperson taking part in a photo op in February 2011 outside Trinity College when he signed a pledge to the Union of Students in Ireland promising to freeze fees at €1,500. The Labour Party also pledged to reverse the €500 increase the Fianna Fáil education Minister committed to in 2011-12. That Labour Party promise amounted to a hill of beans. It did not reverse the €500 increase commitment and it oversaw a fee increase of €250 a year bringing fees to €3,000. That is unacceptable.

I ask the Minister to clarify some points. Will students receiving the pandemic payment lose it when they take up a college place? Many students are relying on these jobs to get them through college. Are those who chose to sit their leaving certificate in November and who will not take up a college place until September and October next year entitled to claim unemployment benefit if they cannot find a job in the interim? If not, what are they supposed to live on? What provision has the Government made for the 20,000 students who sat the leaving certificate last year? I acknowledge the increase in places but I am concerned about how they will be judged and if they will be at a disadvantage this year because of the increases in grades.

I also ask the Minister to examine the supports available for students studying abroad, particularly in the Netherlands. These young people may be on campus for only one day per week but they have to stay in the countries they are in and cannot come home because of Covid-19. They are not entitled to a full grant, yet they attend college for 11 months of the year. Many of them face very difficult financial circumstances.

Will the Government request third level institutions to publish their timetables as quickly as possible in order that students can sort out their accommodation requirements?

I would appreciate if the Minister could address those questions. It was extremely unsatisfactory that the Minister, Deputy Foley, left the Chamber without answering the questions put to her.

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