Dúirt Thomas Davis uair éigin: "Tabhair oideachas dóibh agus tugann tú saoirse dóibh." Tá na focail seo chomh oiriúnach inniu agus a bhí siad. An aontaíonn an Taoiseach le seo? Students and their families are facing significant financial hardship due to the failure of Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, to process properly student grant applications. This morning, at the insistence of Teachta Jonathan O'Brien, the head of the City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee, CDVEC, was before the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection and claimed that the system is working. This refusal to acknowledge the crisis is insulting to students and their families. Does the Taoiseach agree with this assessment?

An e-mail from one student who is still being assessed by SUSI reflects the frustration and anger of many. He writes: "Anyway, it is irrelevant now. I'm leaving the education system. I'm leaving a course I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm leaving my goals and dreams. I will most likely be leaving Ireland very soon." Emigration is not a solution and plainly it is not a lifestyle choice. In a real republic, access to education should be the entitlement of all citizens. It should not be conditional on one's family income. This young citizen's plight is an indictment of this Government.

Does the Taoiseach accept that there is a crisis and that it is totally unacceptable that, as of yesterday, only 18,000 out of 66,000 applications to SUSI have been processed? Does he also accept that the Department of Education and Skills has mismanaged this entire process and failed to provide adequate resources to ensure that SUSI can do its job?

I agree with Deputy Adams that this is an unacceptable position. This is the official position of both the Minister for Education and Skills and the Government. The Minister has already written to the CDVEC, which won the tender for this service, and instructed it to increase the personnel numbers to deal with the backlog. We have had similar issues before when various new structures were set up which were intended to deal with this professionally, competently and efficiently. Clearly, there are serious teething problems with this service. As I understand it, as of Monday, 12 November, the situation regarding the 66,000 applications is as follows: 20,000 are now complete and have been awarded, provisionally awarded or refused. Of the 8,000 grants awarded 3,010 have been paid into bank accounts, with approximately 5,000 awaiting bank details from students. Approximately 2,500 grants have been provisionally awarded, pending final confirmation of attendance from students, while 9,600 applications were refused or cancelled. SUSI is still awaiting documentation on almost 21,000 applications. Of these, 15,000 applicants have provided no documentation whatsoever and SUSI does not expect them ever to complete their applications. It is not, therefore, all one-sided. SUSI has 26,000 applications for processing at present and has a target of 5,030 decisions to be made on applications over the next week. If these targets are met, all successful applicants will receive their grants by the end of September.

In order to help with that, SUSI has received ten additional temporary staff from the Public Appointments Service, who will come on board on Monday.

Is that September of next year?

The processing of documentation is outsourced to Abtran, which is located in Cork. It has appointed 20 additional staff to accelerate the process. I admit that the situation is not acceptable. I hope that, following the Oireachtas committee meeting and the communication from the Minister, the increase in staff numbers will make a big impact shortly.

I would not like to see the student mentioned by Deputy Adams leave Ireland, although that is obviously his or her own choice.

It is not a choice. That is the point.

I do not know which college the e-mail refers to but clearly, notwithstanding the rules and regulations, the college authorities could allow that student to continue with his or her course until such time as final grant approval arrives.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an fhreagra a thug an Taoiseach, mar admhaíonn sé go bhfuil crisis ann. I welcome the Taoiseach's acceptance that there is a crisis. However, he said that the majority of the students will receive their grants by September.

I meant to say December.

Okay, that is fair enough. He also said that he regrets the student having to leave. Let me just quote another section from his e-mail:

I was one of the first to apply to the system in June and despite sending back documents as early as possible, I still await an answer. My dream is over. My goal of education and self-improvement is over. My life of poverty, as it has been for the last few weeks, is just not a viable option any more.

It is not fair to say that this is his choice. This is clearly a person who wants to stay here.

He wants to be educated and to contribute to this State and the people of this island.

This issue should be seen in the context of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, signing the USI pledge during the election to oppose and campaign against any new form of third level fees. Within nine months, the registration charge was hiked by €250 and it is now set to increase further. It is not a surprise that we have this mess.

A question, please.

I welcome that the Taoiseach does not find this acceptable but the head of the body charged with processing these grants stated today that the system is working. As the system is patently not working, will the Taoiseach, in addition to ensuring sufficient resources are provided, ask the Minister, Deputy Quinn, to contact the Higher Education Authority to ensure the students caught up in this mess are not penalised by their universities or institutes of technology? Some students have not been allowed to access libraries and other necessary elements of the education system.

I assure Deputy Adams there is no intention of penalising students. As I noted earlier, 21,000 applications are still awaiting documentation and 15,000 applicants have not provided any documentation. Person X going through the lists for the organisation will ask "who is this student, Gerry Adams? He has sent in no further documentation."

He does nothing.

How will we contact this person? Is it a valid application?

Who the hell is SUSI?

I acknowledge there are unacceptable delays. Can Deputy Adams tell me from the correspondence he received what college the student is attending and in what year? The Deputy might not be fully familiar with the Southern system because this has applied for 25 or 30 years.

Not to this extent.

When Deputies were dealing with county councils and VECs the same problem arose. If these grants can be paid before December it will be a major improvement on what applied for many years, when students and their families had to go through the same process, for a variety of reasons, one after the other. I need to learn from Deputy Adams - he can give me the information afterwards if he so wishes - the college that the student is attending and the year in which he is enrolled. I can guarantee that the college authorities are fully entitled in not penalising that student to allow him to continue the course until everything is regularised.

He does not have the grant.

I hope that next year the lessons learned from this year will result in a vastly improved position for all students who will not be penalised and will be able to get their grant assistance on time and in a way that allows them to plan their semesters.

I remind Deputy Mattie McGrath it is nearly 4 p.m. and a stunt has not yet been pulled.

While the merry-go-round of futile EU summits that continue to yield nothing and the hot air about recovery and reform spews out of this building-----

The Deputy should open a window over there.

-----ordinary, innocent people are being crushed by the austerity the Government and the troika are imposing. The latest victims of this austerity are young people and students who are being driven into poverty and despair. Thousands of students who desperately need grants to survive in third level education remain without them.

Deputy Boyd Barrett never needed one.

They are unable to pay the registration fees which the Government is ratcheting up every year, access hardship funds or pay rent. Many of them are now being forced to make a choice between paying their rent and paying for food.

What would Deputy Boyd Barrett know about hardship?

Last week, I attended a meeting with USI, at which we were told about a student whose breakfasts, lunches and dinners for the week were one packet of pasta and a bottle of tomato ketchup. That is outrageous. If the students manage to survive through college, they will be faced with unemployment and emigration when they finish. Will the Taoiseach admit this crisis for the young people and students who are the future of this country is not an administrative hiccup? It is the result of his so-called reform of the public service, cuts in staffing and resources and the centralisation of the applications process. Just as we saw a litany of refusals and a backlog of appeals for the domiciliary care allowance and social welfare applications, we now see the same crisis being visited on desperate students. Anybody who wants support and assistance from the State is being denied or left on waiting lists for months. Will the Taoiseach provide the staff and resources required to deal with this crisis? Will he commit to reversing the cuts in students' grants? Will he stop the constant ratcheting up of the registration fees which are already unaffordable for many? Will he allow students the opportunity to study and contribute to our society, an opportunity he is denying many of them at present?

The Deputy did not make his case as succinctly as Deputy Adams nor did he listen to the answer I gave to the latter.

I listened but there was nothing in it.

Some 40% of the documents received from students are incomplete. They cannot be processed if they are not complete. The Deputy understands that as well as everybody else. This has gone on for 25 years. Previously 66 processing authorities dealt with applications for third level assistance but now there is one. I recognise there are teething problems and agree they are not acceptable. The Minister for Education and Skills wrote on two occasions to all the third level institutions to ask them to ensure students are not prevented from sitting examinations, are allowed full access to libraries and other facilities and are not discriminated against because of delays that are not their fault although, as I noted, 40% of returned documents are incomplete. The Minister has already outlined the position on registration fees and the road ahead in that regard.

Some 40 extra staff will be in place at the student universal support Ireland scheme. A further ten are starting on Monday and 20 additional staff have been appointed by Abtran to process the applications in an outsourced way. I hope that makes a big difference. The college authorities can confirm that individual students will not be discriminated against in regard to libraries and other facilities or in sitting their examinations while their applications are being processed.

When this system is running smoothly - please God we will see an enormous difference next year------

What about now?

-----instead of paying out grants in March or April, as I have found to be the case with many constituents over the years, there will be a process to pay them at the end of the first semester. That will make an enormous improvement from a professional competence point of view and for students and their livelihoods.

Does the Taoiseach think the students who are taking to the streets to protest in Cork or are mobilising in colleges across the country are making it up? They are in a desperate situation because of the inadequacy of grants, student poverty and now the crisis in the processing of their inadequate grants. Does the Taoiseach acknowledge on any level this is connected to the so-called reform of the public service? This pattern has been repeated in applications for medical cards and the domiciliary care allowance. Whenever citizens seek support and assistance from the State they are faced with the same refusals and backlogs of appeals. It is because of inadequate staffing and resources and the centralisation of this process. It is not working.

He can dress it up as reform, but in reality it is cuts. It is not working and is plunging students into a desperate and unsustainable situation. The Government should provide the resources and the funds.

We are on Leaders' Questions. The Deputy should ask his question.

I ask the Taoiseach to address the issue of student poverty as a result of inadequate grants and the racheting up of registration fees.

As I said, the Deputy can appreciate that the decision taken by the Government was to streamline the process by which third level grants are received, processed and paid out. That was so that they would be done earlier and more efficiently, and to ensure monthly payments would be made to students' accounts. Prior to this, there were 66 processing organisations - the local authorities and the VECs.

SUSI is a disaster.

As the Deputy will recall, for many years before he came into the Oireachtas, a league table was published each year indicating which local authorities and VECs were in front with their payments. Now, at least, we have one central authority. I agree that it has had initial teething problems, but these are being rectified with the addition of 40 extra staff. I hope the lesson learned is that while it is necessary to have adequate staff, it is also necessary for applications to be as complete as possible. We should not have a situation in which 40% are incomplete and cannot be concluded.

So it is the students' fault.

The intention - and this will happen - is that applications will be processed earlier and far more efficiently, and monthly payments will be made into the students' accounts. This will all be done by the end of December. This will be a massive improvement from having to wait until March or April, as applied for the past 25 years.