Ronan Costello
Editor
The High Court this morning dismissed a judicial review taken by three students against the State in a bid to overturn reforms to the student maintenance grant system. The action was supported by the Union of Students in Ireland, which provided legal representation.
Counsel for the claimants had argued on two grounds:
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The measures in Budget 2011 breached Section 6 of the Student Support Act 2011, which says that students who are already in receipt of a maintenance grant should “continue to receive the grant concerned until the person has completed that course and he or she shall not apply for a grant other than the grant of which he or she is in receipt”;
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While accepting that the amount of student grant may rise or fall year on year, the students have a legitimate expectation that they would continue to receive the higher (non-adjacent) rate of the grant.
Remarking on his judgment, Mr Justice Hedigan said that the “perilous” state of the country’s finances superseded the arguments made by the students. Journal.ie’s Gavan Reilly said that this amounted to the court saying the State’s economic shock “trumps any legitimate expectations that citizens had to certain services.”
The reforms to the grant system required students to live over 45km away from their third level institution in order to qualify for the non-adjacent grant. The previous threshold was 24km. (More details on the reforms here.)
Reaction to the judgment from students and student representatives has been resoundingly negative. DITSU Vice President Eric Fitzgerald said “We pump billions into supporting banking fat-cats, yet cannot protect our most vulnerable students. Some Republic this is.” Other students echoed that sentiment, with many on Twitter saying that the verdict created an uncertain future for them and their peers.
TCDSU President Ryan Bartlett said the ruling was very disappointing. “It seems that Justice Hedigan has recognised that the students had legitimate expectations to remain on the non-adjacent rate but that the current state of the economy was more important.”
“The legal advice was that there was a strong case for the students, but the High Court ruled that the Government can hide behind the recession to justify grossly unfair cuts to vulnerable students who are reliant on the limited support they get in the form of grants.”
For USI, the verdict is a bitter defeat. Having sought legal advice on the matter early last year, USI President Gary Redmond seemed genuinely confident that the court would rule in favour of students. Redmond said that he was “bitterly disappointed” with the result and that many students were too.
Speaking on the prospects of grant-reliant students, Redmond said: “Many of them had taken a chance in accumulating debt and struggling on financially this year in the hope that their grant would be restored and they would be able to complete their courses. These 25,000 students will now have to re-evaluate whether or not they will be able to continue on in college.”
“USI again calls on the Minister to do the decent thing and reverse these cuts for students who were already in courses and allow them a fighting chance to complete their education and gain a qualification.”
USI now has to consider whether it will seek an appeal to the Supreme Court. The cost of an appeal will factor into that decision.
