Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Today we have good and bad news on the education front. The good news is the increase in the retention rate of students at second level. The figures have improved and now only 10% of students do not complete the leaving certificate. I was the rapporteur for the Oireachtas early school leaving study two years ago on the factors influencing students to leave school early. At that time the percentage of students who left school without completing the leaving certificate programme was 16%. It is of major significance that the data is showing a 6% improvement in the space of two years. That is very welcome.

The news for the students who are waiting for their third level maintenance grants is not good. It is not acceptable that they have not been paid. As a member of the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection, I support Senator Conway's request that the chief executive of SUSI, the board with responsibility for awarding education grants, come before the committee. We need as a matter of urgency to find a means of sorting out these delays, which are affecting students and their families. This should be viewed against the exorbitant pensions paid to retired bankers who ruined the country. That is not acceptable. Such inequality sticks in the craw of ordinary people.

I remind Senator Bacik that the allegations made by a newspaper were not against illegal clinics but clinics of the Irish Family Planning Association. The staff in some of these clinics may think they are helping pregnant mothers, but they were working outside their remit and outside the law. Only an independent investigation is fit to determine what went on in these clinics. Anything else is a whitewash. We do not need that, given that the expert group will deliberate on this issue shortly. Let us stand up and ensure that the standards we want apply in every case. This is about life and the right to live.