Sir, – The stated mission of the Department of Education is to “provide high-quality education, which will enable individuals to achieve their full potential, to participate fully as members of society, and contribute to Ireland’s social, cultural and economic development”. In that context, recent Budget cuts to post-graduate education are astounding.
Until now, disadvantaged students, who met a number of conditions, qualified for a special rate of maintenance grant plus their tuition fees. Arising from Budget 2012 such students will no longer have entitlement to a maintenance grant. Given high unemployment rates, ever-decreasing incomes, and ever-increasing difficulties in securing loans from our banks, these measures will effectively deny many prospective postgraduate students the opportunity to study for a higher degree. These individuals will not, in all likelihood, achieve their “full potential” in Ireland. This regressive decision needs to be reversed with immediate effect. – Yours, etc,