Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the apology given by the Minister for Education and Skills in the Lower House yesterday to the tens of thousands of young people affected by the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, debacle. Will the Leader ask the Minister if it will hand back the Taoiseach's innovation award it received prior to the SUSI system going live on 11 June? It seems it is such a marvellous success that prior to it going live, the Minister for Education and Skills accepted, on behalf of the Department, an innovation award. Will that be handed back for a time until the system works properly and young people receive their grants?

Will the Leader ask who gave the instruction that VECs were not to be involved in giving advice or help student grant applicants who had difficulty with applications? These people were to be referred to the citizen information service. That is an appalling scandal if the information is correct. VECs have been dealing with these applications for many years since the introduction of the grant, building up a wealth of experience and knowledge, but their personnel were told they could not deal with the young people in difficulty, who should be referred to the citizen information centres. The people in those centres were brought to Dublin for a training day at the taxpayers' expense on how to tell students to deal with difficulties. That experience and knowledge was available in towns throughout the country. Will the Leader get that clarification from the Department of Education and Skills?

Who gave the instruction that the VEC personnel were not to help these young people in difficulty?

I agree with Senator Landy that the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government should be called to the House to discuss the Putting People First document published a few weeks ago.