Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State and wish her well in future career choices. I have raised this issue before and it is close to the Minister of State's heart. She has acknowledged difficulties in the facilitation and distribution of higher education grants. This issue is usually raised by politicians when they are under pressure from constituents in August, September and October. I raise it now because I want to know where the Government's policy is going.

The distribution of grants and the facilitation process is not working. The Minister of State will agree that it is not a question of poor competencies but of resource disparities between the VECs and local authorities. The VECs receive core staff and resources to deal with grant allocations but in my experience as a member of Donegal County Council, local authorities have no funding for staff to allocate higher education grants. Local authorities do not complain enough about this. Their staff have been grinning and bearing this for a number of years as dedicated personnel and through their secretaries offices do work for which they are not paid. Will the Minister of State outline the Government's present and future policy? The system does not work. This is not due to negligence by the people who administer the grant applications but the lack of a proper system and dedicated staff resources.

Many families who celebrate leaving certificate results in August find the elation subsides quickly when they find their efforts to get funding for their students are logjammed due to lack of resources. They approach politicians at every level while we trample over each other trying to facilitate them. They come to politicians because the proper staffing and approach, including computerisation, is not there. I hope the Minister of State will outline the Government's policy.