Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Curran. The issue I raise affects many young people in Donegal. I preface my remarks by saying I will focus on Donegal, in particular the situation in Letterkenny Institute of Technology, but this is a State-wide issue which needs to be dealt with. I am conscious of making these remarks a number of hours after the Government's attack on young people across the State in cutting their social welfare payments by more than 50% and cutting maintenance grants, the issue to which I refer. It will lead to a process of emigration.

The issue I raise is one I raised seven weeks ago, namely, the processing of grant applications by Donegal County Council and Donegal VEC. There is a complete meltdown in the processing of grants State-wide and that is something we need to recognise. I asked seven weeks ago for a process to be put in place to ensure every student in the State would be temporarily registered so there would be no threats against them that they would be unable to sit their exams or access computers, libraries or photocopiers.

Unfortunately, since then we have seen no action from the Government. Young constituents of mine who are in third level education and are trying to become the professionals of tomorrow have failed their courses because they could not get access to laboratories and many laboratory classes. They will have to re-sit their exams next year. It is terrible how the State and the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy O'Keeffe, have abandoned these young people.

Earlier today I received a reply to a parliamentary question we tabled, which asked the number of applications yet to be processed by each local authority and VEC across the State. The most recent figures the Department has are from 27 November. They show that Donegal VEC has the third highest number of applications yet to be processed, behind Dublin city and Cork city VECs, with 1,358 applications yet to be processed. As the Minister of State may know, Donegal VEC has closed its doors to the public this week to try to deal with the collapse of the student grant system. It is not the fault of the staff. The Minister acknowledged seven weeks ago that the recruitment and overtime embargo is part of this problem.

When a cap on the public sector is announced on budget day, people might think it is a good idea but now 1,358 VEC applications have not been processed. Some 117 other applications have not been processed by the county council. This issue affects students who are in third level education who should have had the small sum which comprises the maintenance grant paid to them in September to help them through their third level education, but in reality the payments will not be made until after Christmas.

This is an urgent matter because the Letterkenny Institute of Technology issued a letter to some 600 students who had not paid their registration fees, which the college has to collect. The problem is that the vast majority of the 600 students concerned should not be paying the registration fee because they will receive a maintenance grant when the applications are processed. The institute has written to all students who have not yet paid their registration fee and stated they have to pay €500 of it before 11 December. The letter states failure to pay the fee will result in examination results being withheld, computer accounts and library cards being suspended and access to medical facilities being withdrawn.

It is a terrible situation, which the institute has been forced into as a result of the grants application meltdown. The latest information from the Department is that some 22,000 applications in that State have not been processed. I asked seven weeks ago if the Department can contact all the third level institutions and temporarily register all students, which I ask for again.

It is not their fault. They do not have the money to pay the registration fee. They should not be paying it in the first place. They should have received their maintenance grant in September. The universities also need their money, but need to acknowledge there has been a systems collapse and that until the 22,000 applications are processed, all students should be allowed to avail of the basic services of the college such as access to a photocopier and medical facilities. I ask the Minister to take those concerns on board and look forward to hearing his reply.