A Waterford student with disabilities who took legal action to win more time to sit her Leaving Certificate is engaged in a new struggle for financial support to enable her to attend university.
Ms Mary Nugent (19), who has cerebral palsy, successfully took the Department of Education to the High Court in March to get adequate extra time to complete her examination papers, breaks during tests, and a personal assistant to write her answers.
She is now contemplating further action to force the State to provide her with sufficient support to attend University College Cork, where she hopes to study in the autumn.
Ms Nugent applied to the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs for funding towards the cost of a full-time personal assistant, a computer and other equipment. She was offered a once-off payment of £200.
An assistant to help with her studies and the cost of some equipment are funded by the Department of Education. Like other students, she qualifies for a local authority grant of £1,775; a "mobility grant" of £45.60 is paid by the Department of the Environment; and she receives a £77 per week disability allowance from the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs.
For rent allowance and a home-care assistant, she must apply to the South Eastern Health Board.
Her mother, Mrs Moira Nugent, said there should be a "one-stop shop" where Ms Nugent's needs could be assessed and a decision on funding made.
Even if all of the potential grant-aid came through, there would still be a considerable shortfall because of Ms Nugent's particular needs, such as taxis.
"The mobility grant would probably pay for us to take her to Cork and back home again for a weekend."
Ms Nugent is confined to a wheelchair outside of her home and has limited use of her hands. She has been determined to attend third-level education for nearly as long as she can remember.
"My brother Sean went to UCC when I was six or seven," she said. "It just seemed a formality; you finished school and you went to college. I remember people asking: `What do want to be when you grow up?' Other children would say: `I want to be a hairdresser or a doctor or whatever', but I always said: `I want to go to college'."
This summer Ms Nugent has given up her annual visit to the Peto Institute in Budapest, where she learned how to walk within her home, to save money towards the cost of going to UCC.
The family, her mother says, intend to "muddle through" for the first few months before deciding whether to take further legal action. Their other hope is that a sponsor might be found.
"She has got herself to this stage and she is entitled to a third-level education just like her peers. Money isn't going to stop her."
