Madam, – I have just been informed by Clare County Council that my daughter’s university grant will be cut by 60 per cent (€3,706) for the coming academic year. This is due to the qualifying distance criteria being changed from 24 kilometres to 45 kilometres. We live in north Co Clare, 43 kilometres from NUIG, where she will attend as a third year arts student. There is no suitable public transport option available to us.
This “administrative revision” is an unjustified attack on rural students who, without this stringently means tested grant, could not afford to attend college. The other proposed option to cut all grants by 8 per cent, although harsh, would have at least been fair and equitable. – Yours, etc,