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A CO CLARE student has spoken of his frustration at being denied a maintenance grant for the third time in four years.
Raymond, 21, who asked that his surname not be used, says his latest grant application was rejected earlier this year as he was deemed not be “progressing” in enrolling on a level five course in the UK.
Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi), which processes grant applications, only approves funding for students with prior third-level education when they are advancing to a higher-level degree than their previous course.
Students who withdraw from a level eight course after a year, for example, are not eligible to receive funding for the first year of another level eight course, unless there is a five-year break in their studies.
But Raymond, who was born in Nigeria and brought up in Ennis, thinks the rule should be changed to accommodate students whose grant rejections have forced them out of education.
Two and a half years ago, he says he had no option but to drop out of a level seven course in the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology after Susi declined his funding application.
Raymond met Susi’s eligibility criteria at the time, as a student related to an EU citizen, but had mistakenly submitted his grant application with an immigration certificate registered under a parent’s name.
That was the reason given to him by a Susi official when he was told, shortly before his summer exams in 2013, that his application had been rejected.
“If Susi had told me this earlier I would have tried to get the [Garda National Immigration Bureau] card under my own name,” says Raymond, who moved to Ireland 11 years ago.
He claims to have been told on several occasions since the beginning of that academic year that his documents were in order and the payment would be forthcoming.
Difficulties
Raymond was awarded a grant for the following year, when he moved to Cork to study on a PLC course, but that too was cancelled after Susi allegedly told him a mistake had been made in approving his application.
His monthly €120 grant payment left him with just over €10 to spend on living expenses every week – he paid €70 a month to sleep on someone’s couch – and so when that cancelled he had to drop out, again.
Now, living in Birmingham, where he is studying for a diploma in marketing and events management, he walks every day to college and back, a two-hour round trip, because he can’t afford to get the bus.
His latest grant application has hit him hard, he says.
I don’t know what to do. All I want is a chance to progress but Susi wants to take another year of education from me.
Susi said it does not comment on individual cases when contacted for a response.
A spokesperson said repeat periods of study are not eligible for funding and that further information can be found on the Susi website, www.susi.ie.
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Chemical castration and then a tattoo across their foreheads.
Let them wake up in fear every day for the rest of their pathetic lives. Maybe then they will understand what they are doing to these children who will be unable to trust anyone for the rest of their lives.
Why chemical actual with axe would be better.
This is kind of shite I was referring to
Absolute Sc*m
Chop off their penises.
And ram it up their jacks..
What is it with commentators on this site? You’re all obsessed with cutting off/mutilating male genatalia. Go back to the dark ages
So sorry to bring this up but the current plural of penis is penii. I know we use the other one but penii is a la mode at the mo. So sorry to have raised that, i’ll be headin back to the pole now. Santa
I don’t know who is worse, the pedophiles or the parents pimping out their children. And I don’t give a damn about how poor they are, there is no excuse in the world that could possibly justify that. Pimp themselves out if that’s the case…
Dont mean to defend but playing devils advocate here. Must be really difficult to see your kids starve too. In parts of this world people have to make very tough choices to survive daily. Its the, relativly, rich western paedos that are to blame. No market no internet abuse.
I’d prostitute myself before I’d prostitute my kids. Or indeed, any kids
You would have to be concerned about the red thumbs down people here???
I feel physically sickened by this article.
Vile people.
Great Job Cops
These people should be jailed for 20+ years and only let out after getting a tattoo on their forehead. They have forfitted their right to a normal existance.
public hanging, bury them, dig them up and hang them again
Ah, slight flaw in your plan there. Won’t the neck have decomposed underground to a point where the head is likely to come off on the second suspension?
Puts against wall and riddles with bullets… lowest sc*m of all
I am free to execute ALL paedophiles for free.
The paedo’s are bad enough but to say parents are pimping out their own kids! What kinda sick fu#ks are they? Parents should be jailed for life with it made well known in the prision what their in for as for the paedo’s chop off their hands, castrate them, tattoo it on their foreheads and backs what they are and tag them til the day they die
I fail to understand why chemical castration should’nt be applied as a means of control for people who obvously are mentally unstable and dangerous, or are the human rights brigade not interested in
Chem/cas will not stop abuse….withdrawing their oxygen supply will.
Because if they can’t use their penii they will use any foreign object at hand. Child sexual abuse is more about the power and the infliction of pain than sexual pleasure for the perpetrator. Lock them up and make them live in conditions where they wish for death the remaining days of their lives. Death is too much a reward for them.
Read this folks. Directly from Australian outback
Truly chilling stuff
http://www.reddit.com/r/LetsNotMeet/comments/1t2uwq/the_office_in_the_middle_of_nowhere/
Reads like poorly written fiction.
Live video stream of them being castrated.
Where are the nsa and government.
They have all the information and surely have the ability to shut these down.
Why the will isn’t there is questionable. Spend the extra resources required
Animals that do these things should face the death penalty,there’s no other sentence that could possibly fit this crime!
What’s the point in putting animals to death? What have they done?
Save the foxes first
Child sexual exploitation and trafficking is a very common practice all across the Far East and completely acceptable by the locals and the West can do jack to stop it.
Child sexual exploitation is common in many of the poorer eastern countries, but to say that it’s completely acceptable by the locals is not true, the majority of people in these countries detest pedophilia and they see what’s going on as a total abuse of their poverty. Also, to say that the rest of the world can do jack to stop it is bullshit and the above story proves that, if we had our priorities right we could make a real difference.
Bring back hanging……
Cut off their eyelids and sprinkle salt on their eyeballs; then have a cat lick the salt off……a cat that has rabies. Then squirt lighter fluid on their knackers and set up a mini-barbeque over it where strips of their flesh are cooked and their family members are forced to eat while they watch. Oh, and give them a chinese burn while all this is happening.
Death penalty wouldnt solve anything. America has proven that. Very easy to go for knee jerk reaction. I would be all for really long jail terms plus tatooing. Death penalty just doesnt work as deterrant
Well it will deter the same person from doing it again. As for others, of course not but the DP is about revenge as are most of the posts above.
@Stephen: Show me one executed person that has reoffended…
Tie them to posts pour petrol around there feet and we can all through matches at them.Putting these disgusting evil people in prison for a couple of years with a slap on the hand doesn’t reform them it just makes them more careful not to be caught next time.Its time to dispose of all these pedophiles .
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