Backlog in grants forcing students out of college
Friday November 06 2009
CASH-strapped students are dropping out of college because of a huge delay in processing maintenance grants this year, writes Katherine Donnelly.
About 50 students a week are leaving because of lack of financial support, most notably in colleges on the west coast, student union leaders say.
The backlog in paying grants, the maximum value of which is €6,690 a year, has arisen because of an increase in demand and cutbacks in the staff who process applications.
Union of Students in Ireland president Peter Mannion said 50 students a week were dropping out and the worst-affected colleges included the institutes of technology in Galway, Letterkeny and Sligo.
Without a maintenance grant, students who had moved away from home could not support themselves.
Mr Mannion also said thousands of students had been forced to defer their college registration until they received official confirmation that they were eligible for the grant.
Students who are eligible do not have to pay the college registration fee of €1,500. The economic downturn has pushed applications of the maintenance grant up by about 10pc-20pc to around 50,000.
Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe admitted that there was a problem in processing the "unprecedented number of applications".
He said every effort was being made by local authorities and vocational education committees (VECs) -- who process the applications -- to ensure that students got decisions and were paid as soon as possible.
He acknowledged the difficulties VECs and local authorities were experiencing because of the moratorium in the public sector.
Fine Gael education spokesman Brian Hayes said VECs were creaking under the weight of applications and some students would be waiting until 2010 to get their grants.
"Many, if not all, cannot afford to wait four months to get the grant and some are already dropping out due to inability to pay rent, buy books and finance, at even a basic level, the cost of staying in college," he said.
Fine Gael senator Fidelma Healy Eames said local authorities did not have the money to make grant payments to eligible students.
Irish Independent
