Sir, - The recent occupation of sections of the Department of Education building in Dublin by students from NUI Maynooth has again highlighted the issue of grants.
Student grants at their current levels are below subsistence. A student living away from home who qualifies for a "full" grant will receive the princely sum of £49 a week, paid in three instalments over the academic year. Even in Waterford, where rents are lower than in many other academic centres, £49 is still not enough to cover the average student's weekly rent and household bills, never mind the cost of books and other course materials - or even, God forbid, food.
College drop-outs in this country are estimated to cost the taxpayer up to £200 million a year, and many of these drop-outs are by students who simply cannot balance the economic need for part-time jobs with the requirements of study. Students from lower-income families are not given adequate funding to continue their education to third level. Only about 115 people from homes headed by an unskilled worker were offered places in third-level institutions in 1997/8 (The Irish Times, September 26th).
We call on the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, the Minister for Finance, Mr. McCreevy and the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern, to act immediately on the demands of all students' unions throughout the country, and to increase the student grant to parity with Social Welfare payments.
One has to wonder how long any of the Ministers would survive on £49. - Yours etc.,
Piaras O'Sullivan, President, Keith Martin, Chairman, Waterford Institute of Technology Students' Union, Waterford.