USI Demands Emergency Meeting with Hanafin over Student Grants Crisis

national | public consultation / irish social forum | press release Monday June 12, 2006 14:52 by Union of Students in Ireland

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has written to Education Minister Mary Hanafin demanding an emergency meeting to address the student grants crisis.

USI DEMANDS EMERGENCY MEETING WITH HANAFIN OVER STUDENT GRANTS CRISIS

12 June 2006

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has written to Education Minister Mary Hanafin demanding an emergency meeting to address the student grants crisis.

Minister Hanafin, after months of putting out suggestions to the contrary, last week dashed hopes that responsibility for maintenance grants would be vested in a responsible agency as students and government appointed experts have been calling for.

The 33 Vocational Education Committees (VECs) have an ‘abysmal’ track record of failing to issue grant payments on time – yet Minister Hanafin announced a reform plan that awards them sole responsibility for administering maintenance grants from autumn 2007.

USI President Tony McDonnell said: “USI is demanding an emergency meeting with Minister Hanafin because the student grants system is in crisis, and the Minister’s perverse reform plan – which avoids centralisation in favour of rewarding local government for its historic mismanaging of grants – holds the prospect of more misery next year and every year.

“Financial misery caused by delayed grant payments is the lot of thousands of students across Ireland every year – but USI was led to expect that things would improve, with government appointed experts calling for centralisation and students demanding a single agency at national level.

“Hanafin’s perverse reform plan that gives VECs sole responsibility for maintenance grants has left thousands of students feeling utterly desperate, so USI is demanding an emergency meeting with the Minister to spell out why she must immediately cancel this blueprint for chaos and implement a centralised system.”