Rose Conway-Walsh: condemns high fees, urges SUSI and apprenticeship fixes
Rose Conway-Walsh spoke in the House about barriers to third-level education, condemning high tuition fees and urging support for SUSI reform and USI accommodation legislation. She also pressed the minister to resolve apprenticeship backlogs and called for education to be treated as a public good.
Motion and overall position
She thanked Solidarity and People Before Profit for bringing the motion and said she supported the vast majority of it despite some differences. She called on the minister to remove barriers that prevent access to third-level and further education.
Tuition fees, international and postgraduate costs
She criticised the level of fees, saying Ireland charges the highest fees in the EU and highlighted international and postgraduate fees as a barrier. She cited an example of a medicine graduate facing around €100,000 in costs and warned that failing to invest in education risks losing clinicians and other needed professionals.
SUSI thresholds and USI accommodation legislation
She argued SUSI thresholds are too restrictive and urged the minister to expand access through SUSI reform. She pressed the minister to support the USI accommodation legislation she introduced into the House, noting that 58 TDs have already signed it and that students and struggling families were unfairly charged for accommodation they could not use during the pandemic.
Student wellbeing and pandemic impacts
She reported that 90% of students have told them they are suffering from stress, loneliness and isolation and praised Students' Unions and unions for their work during the year. She warned that students have been exploited by some landlords and said the government should act quickly to prevent a repeat when term starts again.
Apprenticeship delays and training backlogs
She welcomed the strategy to bring apprentices onto the CAO point system and a single portal but warned of immediate problems. She said 6,928 apprentices are currently waiting to access off-the-job training - more than a third of all apprentices - with practicals and exams repeatedly delayed, and called for engagement and clear pathways for apprentices whose programmes typically last four years.
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I would like to thank Solidarity and People Before Profit for bringing forward this really important motion before the House and while it might contain a couple of things that we have differences on, the vast majority of it I wholeheartedly support and the first one in terms of removing the barriers that are there Minister. Now Minister, when I hear you talking, I hear you talking and I hear students talking and I hear tutors within colleges talking and it just doesn't add up for me and the first thing I suppose in terms of removing the barriers and I know that you agreed that we have to remove the barriers that there are to education and that you realise that they are there, the first one being the fees, the fees that are charged and I know you would say that those who are entitled to Susie don't pay fees and all of that but we are the highest, we charge the highest fees in the EU and we cannot stand over that and governments cannot continue to stand over it in terms of our international fees, enormous fees again charged there, our postgraduate fees that are charged, our medicine graduates as I spoke about yesterday, as one young man outlined to me that he would have to end up paying €100,000 to be a doctor. Now we are a country that is crying out for doctors, we go around the world looking for doctors and yet we don't invest in our own in the way that we need to. We desperately need more clinicians, you outlined some of them yourself there. And we need to recognise, we need to join the dots, so we need to make sure that we are investing, we are not looking at the cost of education, we need to be looking at the opportunity cost if we don't invest money where we need to in education and in third level education. And I know we spoke about Donna Coomaley back in the 60s and commended what he did certainly, but we know for any jobs now that are needed, or very many jobs that are needed, we need third level and we need further education in order for people to be able to access that type of employment or the type of enterprises that we need in this country. And I know that you are well intended, but you know what will really show us and show students and student population if your intentions are genuine? And even if we take one, if we take the USI legislation around accommodation, we know that students have been fleeced in the last year and really hard pressed families, some of them single parent families, families who are really struggling. And it is just unforgivable the way that they have had to pay over money for something that then we said, no, you cannot use that. It's like going into a shop and saying, right, pay over your money and leave the shop leave the shop and you can't bring it with you. It is so, so wrong on so many levels. And the way that you can show that you are genuine about addressing that problem is that you can support the USI legislation that is being brought forward, that I introduced into this house, but that 58 TDs have already signed. And we need to do that quickly. We need to make sure that students aren't starting their education again in September and October, finding themselves in the same situation there where renters are exploited. Just because they are students doesn't mean that they can be fleeced. And I know if we weren't in a pandemic year, and if the restrictions weren't on students, we know that they would be outside the gates of Leinster House. And I thank them for not doing that. And I thank the Students' Union for the Trojan work, unions across the country, for the Trojan work they have done throughout the year in trying to protect and defend the rights of students in what they have been doing. We spoke again yesterday. You see, we paint a picture that everything is okay, but it's, you know, it's so far from okay. When I told you that 90% of students have told us that they are suffering from stress, from loneliness, from isolation, and that they are feeling disconnected. And I know it was referred to earlier on about us, you know, this human capital that we produce. But we have to look at education and we have to address things in a holistic manner. And we have an opportunity here. We have an opportunity. And you have the privilege of being the Minister in the first Department of Higher Education. And you will be judged on that Minister. And I really hope that you are judged kindly and you are judged because of the things that you do, not of the reports that you do or anything, but the things that you really make happen for students and for their families to address the inequalities that are there. Because if we continue on with an education system that feeds into inequality, everybody pays the price. Everybody pays the price. And that's why we have to make sure that we have an education system that is treated as a public good, that is treated in a way that we invest in it, that we ensure equality, that we ensure integrity within the system, that we expand access in what you have said in terms of SUSI. And we know that the thresholds of SUSI are way too restrictive as well. I want to focus, Minister, because I didn't get an opportunity yesterday around apprentices. And I think Minister Collins is here. But apprentices, and I welcome the strategy that you are doing for apprentices and bringing them on to the CAO point system and all of that into the one portal. But there are immediate, immediate problems here in apprenticeships and we have to address it because apprentices have been left in limbo by government. 6,928 apprentices are currently waiting to access their off-the-job training. That's more than a third of all the apprentices. They have seen their practicals and their exams continuously put to one side with no end in sight. There are real problems there. The first thing we need to do is we need to engage with them. And we need to show them the pathway of their training. Most apprenticeships last four years. We cannot have apprenticeships lasting six years and people not having the qualifications that they need and not being able to earn the income that they need to as well. So it needs to be taken in hand. Whatever about the strategy for the future and I know that government have missed targets around apprenticeships and all that and they have been even very modest targets that have been missed. But we need to deal with the here and now in relation to apprenticeships. And SOLACE really need to engage as well with them and to engage with the employers there to make sure that those things are addressed as well. We also need to address the situation around the student teachers, in terms of the Gaeltacht courses there. And the grant aid not being extended to the ones that we have pushed into getting their qualifications in the private colleges. But in terms of the Gaeltacht thing there, that grant needs to be extended. There are many more things I could talk to you about in education, but I realise I've run out of time now. Haven't I lost your name? I have indeed. I will pass over to my colleagues. I think you get my drift. Thank you. Who's next.
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