Tom Clonan (Independent)

I thank Senator McCarthy for sharing time. I commend my colleagues on this motion and thank them for it. Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire agus déanaim comhghairdeas leis on his appointment to this portfolio. It was mentioned that the Department of further and higher education can be transformational. That is the case.

I have two asks for the Minister in the brief time I have. During the tenure of the Minister's predecessor, the Tánaiste, Deputy Harris, an anomaly came to light when my son, who is a wheelchair user and partially sighted, applied in good faith through the Central Applications Office system for a course in Dublin Business School which he was offered through the CAO system. We discovered, however, that the funding that is made available for disabled students through the Higher Education Authority was not payable to a privately funded college. This was a terrible injustice. It meant that Eoghan would not have been able to pursue his studies. We prevailed upon the then Minister, Deputy Harris, at the time and he, the assistant secretary general and the officials in the Department of further and higher education and officials in the Higher Education Authority changed the rules in a 48-hour period so that all students attending third level colleges, irrespective of their funding model, would receive the supports they need. That was transformational and the then Minister was able to do that through the good offices of his officials within 48 hours.

Funding should follow the student, not the institution. We have an anomalous situation where the university or college hires the personal assistants and becomes their employer. The budget should go to the student who should decide who their personal assistants are. The current position leads to a number of unfair situations where students like my son, who is 23 years old, has to submit a study plan for the summer in order for the college to assign those hours as a third party. That is infantilising and unfair. My son would be the only student in the university who has to submit a study plan and it is because he is disabled. That could be easily remedied and I ask the Minister to do so.

As a university Senator, I have received a number of representations from disabled students. There is a bit of unevenness in the way access officers are treating disabled students. They are not quite in loco parentis in secondary school. If they showed a little emotional intelligence and treated disabled students in good faith, as opposed to in a legalistic manner, it would help them on the third level pathway. I do not know if it is possible to hold a seminar or some sort of meeting of diversity, inclusion and equality officers to encourage them to be more empathetic, a little more emotionally intelligent and psychologically literate when it comes to disabled students. I thank the Cathaoirleach for his patience.