Grant limbo for almost 1,000 Clare students

ALMOST 1,000 students from across Clare are facing financial uncertainty as they are still waiting for their grant applications to be processed, it emerged recently.

 

Figures released to Fianna Fáil through a series of Parliamentary Questions reveal that of the 1,775 students from Clare who applied for a grant this year, 805 of these applications had been processed by the beginning of December. However, more than half (970) still have not heard about their applications.

“By the beginning of the month, 266 Clare students had been rejected for a grant and 539 applications were successful. However, the vast majority of Clare students are still waiting to actually receive a grant payment,” said Fianna Fáil TD for Clare, Timmy Dooley.

The Opposition TD accused the Minister for Education of trying to downplay the issue.

“It is clear that this crisis has not gone away, despite attempts by the Education Minister Ruairí Quinn to downplay it,” said Deputy Dooley.

“The fact that half of applications from Clare still hadn’t been processed by the beginning of December is extremely worrying. Even of the applications that have been processed, a high proportion of these students haven’t actually received a payment yet.”

“Despite all Minister Quinn’s promises, the vast majority of students will be waiting well into the new year for their grants. I have already spoken to a number of students from Clare who are experiencing enormous difficulties as a result of these unacceptable delays and who are at risk of dropping out of third level altogether. The longer this is allowed to linger, the greater the likelihood that many students simply will not be able to afford to stay in college.

“How can Minister Quinn allow this to happen? It seems that all his focus has been on spinning the figures to make this situation look more palatable than it is. But students don’t want to hear talk of processes and systems, they just want to know when they will actually get the money they are entitled to. They also don’t want to hear Minister Quinn’s ‘it’s not SUSI’s fault’ defence. The tactic of blaming students for the high level of unprocessed and ‘incomplete’ grant applications is a cheap shot. Students from lower-income families who are in need of state support to stay in college are not the ones dragging their heels here,” he said.

“It is time for Minister Quinn to stop worrying about his PR and start being upfront with students about when exactly they will see their grants.”

Minister Quinn was also subjected to stinging criticism at a recent Clare County Council meeting where former Mayor of Clare, Councillor Pat Hayes and Councillor Richard Nagle requested him to immediately intervene to tackle the delays in processing third-level grants administered by SUSI as a matter or urgency.

Describing the introduction of SUSI as a “total fiasco”, Councillor Hayes said students have been forced to go to community welfare officers to try and get maintenance money because their grants haven’t been paid.

“Only 7,132 of the 66,827 students who applied for grants this year had received a payment at the end of November. This is extremely low and very worrying for students and it now looking likely the vast majority of students will not receive a grant payment until well into the new year.

“This is causing huge distress for students and families due to the current uncertainty,” he said.

His views were shared by Councillor Nagle who stated he knew “umpteen” Clare students who were still waiting for third-level grants yet when he made official enquiries on their behalf, he was told that he wasn’t entitled to information.

Despite repeated commitments to tackle the backlog, he expressed frustration this problem still hasn’t been resolved, which he felt was totally unacceptable in any so-called modern society.

Councillor Bill Slattery cited the case of a Clare student who was recently warned he would have to leave student accommodation in Limerick unless he paid rent arrears, which were built up as a result of the delay in receiving his grant.

This situation was condemned as an “unmitigated disaster” by Councillor Patricia McCarthy who questioned the need to centralise the processing of third-level grants nationally when the system had previously operated without a major glitch locally.

Councillor Joe Cooney recalled he had previously tabled a motion expressing concern about the decision to centralise the processing of grants nationally.