New grants to help disadvantaged students will benefit only a "minuscule" number of students, a specialist in education equality has said.
Dr Kathleen Lynch, of the Equality Studies department in UCD, was reacting to news that the Department of Education is planning to introduce a "top-up" grants scheme next year. The new yearly grants are said to be worth up to £1,000 extra per student. Reports yesterday suggested up to 10,000 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds could benefit from the new grants. However, only children of parents receiving the supplementary welfare allowance will be able to join the scheme.
It will not be available to the children of parents on unemployment benefit, unemployment assistance or disability benefit.
The Department was unable to confirm the new grants, though Mr Julian de Spainn, deputy president of the Union of Students in Ireland, suggested they would be introduced in September 2000.
"While we welcome this development we will continue to push for a significant increase in the maintenance grant for all students," he said.
Dr Lynch said the scheme "would not benefit the majority of students who need greater assistance. Children of lower whitecollar and blue-collar workers, such as postal workers, transport workers - these kind of people will not benefit."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Social and Community Affairs said the numbers on supplementary welfare allowance "would be very low".
"Supplementary welfare is really an emergency breadline payment for people, such as asylum seekers, who cannot get anything else," she said. "The majority of welfare recipients would be on other forms of assistance." Just 16,300 people received supplementary welfare assistance last year, compared with 43,766 on disability allowance, 132,451 on unemployment benefit and 129,923 on unemployment assistance.
Dr Lynch and Mr de Spainn said current grants were inadequate. They also described the parents' salary ceiling for student eligibility as "far too low".
Under the existing system, a parent of up to four children may earn no more than £19,200 gross per annum for one child to receive a grant.
The grant is up to £1,690 a year for a student living away from home or up to £676 for one living at home.
Dr Lynch estimates it would cost a student about £4,000 a year to live away from home.
