Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

I wish to raise a most important issue. I am glad the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, has stayed to take this matter. Having regard to labour services and FÁS, which we have just discussed, this matter is almost linked to it. I expect a serious response to this matter from the Department of Education and Science.

What I seek in raising this matter is simple and straightforward. From now to Christmas students are focused on next year's leaving certificate. By January they will be filling in CAO forms or other forms, depending on whether they intend to study in this country or outside it. Their focus in the period from Christmas to January is on to which college and to what course they will apply. Once the application format is complete and the students have applied to colleges for their chosen courses, they are entirely focused on their exams. I am confused as to the reason it is not possible for the Department of Education and Science at the start of the year to set out the criteria required for qualification for a grant and the information students should submit.

When students are gearing their thoughts towards filling out forms for the college courses they wish to take and are prioritising them in the order of preference and their expected results in the leaving certificate, it is ridiculous that provision is not made for them to fill out simultaneously a form for the grants for which they might apply. They cannot do that currently because the qualifying criteria is not provided by the Department in time and in line with the CAO process. Therefore, this process takes place later in the year.

The fact that students are geared more towards exams up to June and, in the case of many students, July, the concept of applying for a grant links in with a time when they have other things on their mind. However, that is not the essential point. The point is that by the time this information is given, it is very much into the summer. Some students throughout the country are only now getting their first grant and others have been told it will definitely be the week before Christmas before they get any payment and then they will get a double payment.

I remember a good few years ago the importance of the grant for those who were waiting to receive it. The fact that students have to wait until the eve of Christmas for their grants is a difficulty for many of them. I do not understand why staff in the various vocational education committees and county council offices should be put under pressure now because everything in this respect has been left to the last minute. The criteria for qualification for student grants came out late, the students then applied for them and the staff in the offices have had to interpret those forms and check facts and figures. By the time all the applications, of which there are now a glut, have been processed, it will be Christmas before they can be assessed.

If the Department issued the criteria for student grants in January, students could submit their applications for grants at the same time as they submit their applications for college courses and the information required could be submitted any time between then and May or June. The only critical point then is whether the students get the results they need for the courses for which they have applied. However, if the processing of all the information is done to the point of waiting to learn if students get their first choice, second choice, or do not get sufficient points for any of their choices, at least that process would be logical and systematic.

Some people might argue that we should wait for the introduction of Student Support Bill to make any changes that may need to be made, but I cannot understand why we would need to await the introduction of any other legislation. I will bow to the expertise of the Minister of State in terms of his response, but I would like to think that if the Department could issue the information a little earlier to facilitate the county councils, the VECs, the potential students and their parents, it would do so. The tax year has changed from April to March to 1 January to 31 December. People's income details for last year are available from January as opposed to April as was the case in the past, which was a reason we would not have needed to bring forward the date in this respect.

What I seek is simple when one considers it written in black and white. The information should be submitted earlier and the turnaround in terms of the processing of the applications could then be more systematic. It would take the pressure off the staff in the offices, the students and their parents. The opposite is the case now. Students and their parents are under pressure and are berating the staff in offices because students do not have the money they need to make ends meet. Everybody is trying to be realistic and accommodating but, unfortunately, the poor staff are getting abuse and students are doing their best to hold down colleges places.

We met representatives of the Union of Students in Ireland last week. I would always encourage students to take up part-time jobs, whether stacking shelves or some other job, to earn some money. Such work helps them to socialise in a different forum, although it is probably not one to which they would aspire to work in the future. Such learning curves are important and they should avail of the opportunity to earn some extra money. However, there are no part-time jobs in some parts of the country. Therefore, students do not have the fall-back position that students had in earlier times.

As a spokesperson on education, I look forward to the making of such simple changes which would have significant implications for everybody involved, be it the student, his or parents or those within and outside the system. There is pressure to bring forward the introduction of the Student Support Bill but it should not be the be-all and end-all in regard to this issue. Provision should be made for the grant criteria to be released earlier in order that students can be aware that January is the month for form filling and once such form filling is complete, they can relax and focus on what they need to, namely, getting the best possible results in the leaving certificate.

I hope the Minister of State will be in a position to tell me that the Department might be in a position, even by way of regulation, to fast track the criteria in this respect. The lack of such provision currently means that the process cannot be moved along. The processing of forms in June, July or August that are needed at the start of September is not fair to those concerned. None of us wants this unfair situation to continue any longer than is necessary. I look forward to a positive response from the Minister of State on this matter.