Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Mullen for letting me lead off. The Minister is very welcome to the House. I am that rare commodity in that I am a Trinity Senator, even though I am from Finglas. I am very proud to be a representative of that august institution here and very grateful to have been elected.

I voted for Seanad reform in the last referendum. Sad to say, I was a teenager in 1979, believe it or not, so I remember that referendum, which led to a constitutional amendment expanding the franchise to all graduates of higher educational institutions within the State. Notwithstanding the fact I am one of three Trinity Senators I welcome the expansion of the franchise. It is high time and it would be useful if, in the near future, the recommendations of the Manning report for more broad reform of this Chamber were implemented.

I want to speak to the Minister about the probably unintentional exclusion of the private and independent colleges from the franchise, which Senator Byrne mentioned. Senator Byrne referenced the National College of Ireland. I am thinking of institutions like Griffith College, Dublin Business School and City Colleges. Many graduates of these sit in both Houses and have made a huge contribution to Irish life. They are fully accredited by Quality and Qualifications Ireland and were accredited by its predecessors HETAC and the NCEA, so it is probably an unintended omission that they are not included in the legislation. However, graduates of those institutions comprise about 10% of our overall graduate population, so it would be useful if we could include them in this legislation. I intend to table some amendments in that regard. They are not very extensive or lengthy. Maybe it would be useful if I sent them to the Minister and his officials in advance so they could have a look at them. I hope he will accept them. It is about the principle of extending the franchise so it goes to all graduates and not just graduates of publicly-funded institutions like Trinity, UCD, UL or the technological universities.

I wanted to say something about our experience as a family of a private college student. My son Eoghan, who is 22, is in his final year studying applied social sciences at Dublin Business School. He has restricted eyesight. His fine motor function is very compromised. He is in a wheelchair and has an assistance dog. He has a brilliant personal assistant, Andressa, who goes in with him. He has to absorb the entire syllabus cognitively because he cannot take notes. When he is writing essays he has to recall his arguments. He has to speak his arguments to the scribe who writes them down.He has to construct the structure of his essays and continuous assessments internally. If he is going to quote the literature, which he must do, he has to recall that himself. It is extraordinary. He also has dysarthric scanning speech. Dublin Business School has done everything in its power to assist and support him through his third level journey.

At the beginning of that journey, we learned that the funding available to disabled students through the Higher Education Authority was not available to him, even though he had applied for this course in good faith through the Central Applications Office. We got the place and were delighted as a family; we could not believe it that our son was going to university. Then we learned that the HEA would not provide the funding because it was a private college. We appealed to the then Minister, now Taoiseach, Deputy Harris. We had a very brief phone call and he said the principle was that the supports should follow the student and should not be confined to the institution. He changed the rule and Eoghan was then able to go to university, and all disabled students are able to attend those private colleges. It is the same principle here. It was an unintended exclusion. If the principle is access to education for my son and his supports, then the principle should also hold in respect of access to the franchise. It should not be confined to the institution.

Before we got those supports in place, I had to attend Eoghan's lectures with him. You can imagine how embarrassing it would be to have your dad with you in college. I was also lecturing in TU Dublin and that is when I discovered the great value of Dublin Bikes. I would go to some of Eoghan's lectures with him and support and assist him, and then I would hop on a bicycle and cycle over to TU Dublin to do my lectures. I found the standard of his lectures far superior to mine, so that was a bit of a wake-up call. In that experience, the private colleges are actually very diverse. Lots of students who cannot get into university by the traditional route will go through the fee-paying route. They are not silos of rich, privileged kids. There are actually lots of kids from non-traditional backgrounds. It is very diverse and it would be a shame to have them excluded. I am going to submit some amendments and I hope the Minister will be able to accommodate some if not all of them. It makes sense. I thank him again for bringing this legislation forward.