Editor
The High Court granted the national union of third-level students leave to challenge a reform of student grants, which will see around 25,000 students face cuts of over 60 per cent in their grants this year.
The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has been granted a judicial review of changes in the Student Grant Scheme proposed in last year’s Budget, which reformed the rules governing how far a student must live from college in order to receive a higher rate of payment.
Nine days ago, USI, with the approval of TCDSU, served notice to Minister for Eduction Ruairi Quinn to inform him that it was filing a case on the grounds that current students who entered third level education before the introduction of recent reforms had a legitimate expectation that they would be entitled to the higher grant rate if they satisfied certain criteria.
The last Budget replaced the 24 kilometres threshold with a new one of 45 kilometres – with the previous government claiming that improvements to public transport made it more feasible to commute to college from long distances.
USI claims, however, that this is not the case – and that 25,000 current students affected by the move are facing devastating cuts of over 60 per cent in their grants as a result. TCDSU President Ryan Bartlett agrees with USI on this point. “There are plenty of places in Ireland that are within 45km of a third level institution but which are not serviced by adequate public transport thus making it almost impossible for students to attend university without the expensive use of a car for which this funding is needed.
This arbitrarily victimizes students based solely on where they grew up.”
The High Court heard that current students could not legitimately have expected their grants to be cut by so much. For students e
Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn signs a pledge to protect grants in February before the General Election.
ntitled to the largest grant payments, which are based on household income, grants will be cut from €6,100 down to €2,445 as a result of the new boundary changes.
USI President Gary Redmond stated that “the biggest victims of these cuts are students from the most financially disadvantaged backgrounds who rely on the grant to stay in education. If this cut is not reversed many of these students will have no choice but to drop out.”
“This is yet another example of disjointed Government policies. While they claim to promote upskilling and building a smart, knowledge based economy the Minister for Education is threatening the future of up to 25,000 students.”
Redmond said that while students understood the country’s financial problems, and were willing to share the pain of general spending cuts – with grants cut by ten per cent across the board over the last two years – but that a cut of 60 per cent was “unprecedented, savage and unfair”.
In February, days before the general election, Quinn signed a pledge promising not to increase student fees or cut higher education grants if he was appointed to the government.
