USI has called on the Labour Party to commit itself to a complete overhaul of the maintenance grant system before the upcoming general election.

In an angry response to a claim made in Labour's "Social Charter", launched at the recent party conference in Limerick, that nobody under 21 will be on the dole, USI president Colman Byrne said the claim was made "with no substantial backup to ensure funding to further education, training, work experience or jobs".

Byrne says that if Labour is "truly committed" to equality of access to further education and training, then it should commit itself to an overhaul of the grants system.

Meanwhile, USI representatives met with the Fianna Fail education spokesman Micheal Martin last week. In a meeting which was described as "quite productive" by USI's education officer, Malcolm Byrne, Martin committed himself to making maintenance grants his number-one priority in the event of Fianna Fail winning the next election and his subsequent elevation to the Cabinet's education portfolio.

Martin also said he would address the anomaly in mature students' grants, assessing them as financially independent of their parents and eliminating the "catch-22" 15-mile rule. He also promised student appointments to the HEA and the NUI Senate and the establishment of an independent grants' appeal board.

Byrne said USI welcomed Martin's statements. "If Micheal Martin were to find himself in government, we would obviously look forward to him bringing in these commitments."