Student leader calls for return of job scheme

THOUSANDS of students are struggling to return to college every autumn because of the Government’s refusal to reintroduce the Summer Jobs Scheme it scrapped four years ago, it was claimed yesterday.

The scheme attracted up to 15,000 participants yearly in the mid-1990s, offering students a basic wage for six weeks of work usually with community, voluntary or sporting bodies.

The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs decided, in 2003, to end the scheme.

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has called for the scheme’s reintroduction, as college students find it harder to get work at home for the summer.

“It’s particularly difficult for people from rural areas who can’t afford to stay on in college towns or cities just to work. It means they either stay at home for the summer with no work or make very little money because they’re paying big rents to work near college,” said USI president Colm Hamrogue.

“The Government is trying to encourage people to get involved in their communities and active citizenship — this would be a great way of doing so,” said Mr Hamrogue.

The USI annual congress passed a motion this week calling for the scheme’s reintroduction and seeking assurances that a new scheme would offer enough money for students to return to college.

More than 7,000 young people took part in the scheme in 2002, receiving an hourly pay rate of less than two-thirds of the €5.97 minimum wage at the time.

A spokesperson for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Minister Éamon Ó Cuív said it would cost €20 million to pay 10,000 students the equivalent of five or six weeks’ work at the minimum wage.

“The minister feels that available resources should be focused on the Community Services Programme and the Rural Social Scheme, which the department spends €78m on,” she said.

UCC Students Union president Richard Morrisroe was elected yesterday to become USI president in July.

“Among my priorities is seeing USI lobby for equality of access to education for everyone. Regardless of social background, age, nationality or bank balance, education is a fundamental right,” he said.