Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to welcome and speak on the Bill that is before the House. Nothing has been more transformative in Irish life since the foundation of the State than the education system. We can be very proud of how the education system has developed over the years and the huge amount of effort that has been put in by many Governments and Ministers to advance education.

To take up Deputy Phelan's point, we are put here to make the lives better of those that we serve and that must be our guiding light at all times. The Bill before us looks at the Higher Education Authority and all the aspects of higher education: the universities, technological universities and all the changes that have taken place in that sphere. Equity and fairness must be at the very centre. That is why I take the liberty to raise one issue that I have been pursuing for quite a long time, that is, inequity within the system.

I have a case of a student who went on to third level education and then did a postgraduate course. The person came from a very, decent, honourable, hard-working family. The parents are wonderful people who went on to give their kids the best. The student applied for a postgraduate course with a stipend. Because the stipend from the research company was paid upfront, on the understanding that the student was clearly entitled to the grant afterwards, but because the course had to be secured, the fees were to be reimbursed by the company. That was the understanding of everybody that was involved with it. Because that had been done at the very start, the grant awarding body and the Department took the view that they were taking in excess of the stipend. We have tried in every way humanly possible to resolve the issue over many years. I bring it before the Dáil tonight because it speaks to the Bill and ensuring that there is fairness and transparency.

I accept that not everything will be got right by the grant awarding bodies or the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science but there need to be checks and balances to correct any issues that are brought before them. We have tried to resolve the issue through various bodies, even outside of the Houses of the Oireachtas, which I understand we cannot refer to here. I contacted the Department, the grant awarding body and the Ombudsman to try to resolve this very specific and simple case where one student, who had worked hard enough to go on to postgraduate education, suffered the injustice of not getting the grant due to a tick in one box. We must be very mindful in the legislation before the House that we are passing, that there is a mechanism to ensure that when cases are brought, they can be addressed. We work extremely hard as public representatives to ensure that when cases are brought before us that we work through the system to ensure that they can be resolved. There have been a number of questions and letters to the Minister, and the matter has not yet been resolved. My office had been discussing the application with the grant awarding body for a number of years and eventually it said there was never an application. A gross injustice has been done in this case. We, in the Houses of the Oireachtas, must ensure that we are capable of looking at injustices that take place and that we can go back over them and the Department and the reviewing bodies can accept that an injustice was done and that it can be corrected. I accept there is a lot going on in the Department, but I urge the Minister of State to do something. I am aware that an awful lot of work is going on in the Department.

I commend the Bill that the Department has produced. In my allocated time I urge that this injustice is rectified. It speaks to the very heart of what we do in this House: we try to ensure that we make lives better. Where we come across issues like this, where everything is done in good faith, even if it does not tick a specific box, the grant awarding bodies, the Department and outside bodies must accept that was the understanding of all and that therefore the grant should be awarded. We must make sure that in everything we do in this legislation - I know there will be amendments to the Bill and further discussion of it - a simple, clear, fast mechanism must be put in place to address issues and not have them going on for years and requiring outside bodies to get involved to resolve them. We must have a clear and concise way of resolving a very simple matter and an injustice done to a student who has gone on to better themselves in postgraduate studies. The injustice was done at the very time the person most needed help and support and it must be rectified.

The Bill is a very detailed document, but at the outset it states that its purpose is to reform the higher education institutions and for them to operate within their relationship to the HEA. We are introducing legislation and I am bringing information to the House that shows there is not any way to resolve injustices except going outside of this House, and that should never be the case. I ask that this would be examined on the basis of the case I raise in the House this evening.

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