The Increasingly Depressing Financial Crisis Thread

soccymonster

Anyone know the story for college registration fees?

Pigwidgeon

It's expected to be €2,000 for the first child of a family and €1,500 for each one after that. Something along those lines, but it hasn't been officially announced yet.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

From what I've seen so far that wasn't too bad. Expected worse.

It's up to €2000 per year, with only one child per family having to pay this amount at a time. A family with two children at college at the same time will pay €1500 for the second child.

The grant has been cut by 4%, and they've made it so that less people qualify for the non-proximity rate so that those who live further away from college may now have their grant halved. The distance at which you qualify for the proximity rate is 45km.

All details are already on the Deparment of Finance website. There's a nice summary PDF for those who like to get straight to the point.

Pigwidgeon

Deleted User wrote: »

It's up to €2000 per year, with only one child per family having to pay this amount at a time. A family with two children at college at the same time will pay €1500 for the second child.

The grant has been cut by 4%, and they've made it so that less people qualify for the proximity rate for living closer to college.

All details are already on the Deparment of Finance website. There's a nice summary PDF for those who like to get straight to the point.

Wait, so have they made the adjacent/non-adjacent limit further away from the college? If so, that's me fúcked and my grant halved.

kateos2

kateos2 wrote: »

Wait, so have they made the adjacent/non-adjacent limit further away from the college? If so, that's me fúcked and my grant halved.

Actually, no it says reduce number qualifying for the non-adjacent rate. Sorry. I misread it.

Yeah, unfortunately, you fall into that category - the new limit is 45km.

Pigwidgeon

Deleted User wrote: »

No, oddly enough, it says, they've limited the number of people who qualify for the rate... unless I've read it wrong. It does seem contrary to expectations.

I just found a summary thing that says

Student Support Scheme - 4% reduction in rates of grant, consistent with the % reduction in all DSP working-age payments; limit mature students benefits to those payable to ordinary students; and reduce proportion of students qualifying for the non-adjacent rate by changing qualifying criteria from 24km to 45km

on b.17 of this

So it's looking like I'm being halved, and receivng 4% less of that. Awesome. That's not even going to cover my bus tickets.

That's a change that seems to have no rational basis. The cost of transport hasn't wildly plummeted over the past year.

Grindylow

kateos2 wrote: »

I just found a summary thing that says

on b.17 of this

So it's looking like I'm being halved, and receivng 4% less of that. Awesome. That's not even going to cover my bus tickets.

Is Wicklow not like 100 km away from Dublin?

Edit: Also conor I keep thinking your storm2811 now! :P

Pigwidgeon

Noel2k9 wrote: »

Is Wicklow not like 100 km away from Dublin?

I'm north wicklow, in UCD. I'm something like 24.5km from UCD, so barely make non-adjacent, and have had some issues getting it already.

Hopefully it will apply to new applicants, but I somehow doubt it. Actually fúck, last year the cuts came in in January so I wonder if that'll affect my next two checks?

Grindylow

Replace Student Services Charge with a flat higher
education student contribution of €2,000, and
introduce €200 charge for PLC students. The higher
Student Service charge will only apply to one child in
a family at any one time

That's kind of deceptive.. It could be took as ONLY one person will be charged it totally.. Or only one will be charged that rate.

Noel2k9

Noel2k9 wrote: »

Replace Student Services Charge with a flat higher
education student contribution of €2,000, and
introduce €200 charge for PLC students. The higher
Student Service charge will only apply to one child in
a family at any one time

That's kind of deceptive.. It could be took as ONLY one person will be charged it totally.. Or only one will be charged that rate.

That's what the papers reported before the budget, but no, once the first child graduates, the next ones are fair game.

Namlub

Thank god for my sister's ridiculously long college course, won't have to pay the higher rate until third year

soccymonster

I'll have to pay the higher rate next year but at least my sister won't have to pay the higher rate the year after anyways!

challengemaster

Going by the 4% cut...

Non-adjacent rates
NA1 grant cut €130 (€3120)
NA2(75%) grant cut €97.4 (€2337.6)
NA3(50%) grant cut €65 (€1560)
NA4(25%) grant cut €32.4 (€777.6)

Adjacent rates
A1 grant cut €52 (€1248)
A2(75%) grant cut €39.2 (€950.8)
A3(50%) grant cut €26 (€624)
A4(25%) grant cut €13.2 (€316.8)


Dole cut €9

:rolleyes:

amacachi

challengemaster wrote: »

Dole cut €9

:rolleyes:

Well it's more like about 400 quid, which is more than any of the grants are going down.

challengemaster

amacachi wrote: »

which is more than any of the grants are going down.

Considering how much the dole increased compared to the grants during the boom, it's not being reduced half as much as it should be.

9% taken off the grant in the last year.

amacachi

challengemaster wrote: »

Considering how much the dole increased compared to the grants during the boom, it's not being reduced half as much as it should be.

9% taken off the grant in the last year.

9% taken off the dole in total as well. Have you got the old figure for the grant? Also the abolition of fees could be counted towards the increase in third level spending, even if it didn't go directly into students' pockets.

**Timbuk2**

Sorry for sounding stupid, but what if you are a twin, like I am. We are both in first year (different colleges). What's the story with fees then?

**Timbuk2**

**Timbuk2** wrote: »

Sorry for sounding stupid, but what if you are a twin, like I am. We are both in first year (different colleges). What's the story with fees then?

I assume your combined fees are €3500.

Namlub

I feel it's necessary to say that I hate Mary Coughlan. That SF guy who just got elected in Donegal was making a really good speech (and I don't even like them) and every time the camera cut to her she was either laughing at him or checking her texts. Wagon.

**Timbuk2**

Deleted User wrote: »

I assume your combined fees are €3500.

Hmm, well that wouldn't be so bad if it happens. I expected worse!

BUT: it sounds like it would be hard enough to control with twins. Which one of us pays the higher price? As we are in different colleges, and registration in UCD occurs about 3 weeks earlier than my brother's college (this might only be relevant for first year though), it would probably be me. I'm not sure. I'm also the oldest, by 15 minutes.

challengemaster

**Timbuk2** wrote: »

Hmm, well that wouldn't be so bad if it happens. I expected worse!

BUT: it sounds like it would be hard enough to control with twins. Which one of us pays the higher price? As we are in different colleges, and registration in UCD occurs about 3 weeks earlier than my brother's college (this might only be relevant for first year though), it would probably be me. I'm not sure. I'm also the oldest, by 15 minutes.

Shouldnt you be **Timbuk1** then? :pac:

kev9100

Namlub wrote: »

I feel it's necessary to say that I hate Mary Coughlan. That SF guy who just got elected in Donegal was making a really good speech (and I don't even like them) and every time the camera cut to her she was either laughing at him or checking her texts. Wagon.

+1. Coughlan is a painfully incompetent minister. She wouldn't get close to being a minister if this was the UK.

jumpguy

Namlub wrote: »

I feel it's necessary to say that I hate Mary Coughlan. That SF guy who just got elected in Donegal was making a really good speech (and I don't even like them) and every time the camera cut to her she was either laughing at him or checking her texts. Wagon.

I hate her too, she's the most ignorant, stuck-up idiot (for fear of using a stronger word) in government and probably in the entire Dáil chamber.

College fees aren't that bad, my parents expected it to go up for my other sibling in college, and they'll be the same for me (1500€). I should still get it covered by the grant, I think.

jumpguy

Anyone see that Michael Noonan, Brian Lenihan interview? That was brilliant, thank god Noonan is out of the backbenchs, he's extremely sharp and definitely doing Fine Gael favours. First time I've seen someone being able to withstand the rather domineering personality of Lenihan.

sock puppet

jumpguy wrote: »

Anyone see that Michael Noonan, Brian Lenihan interview? That was brilliant, thank god Noonan is out of the backbenchs, he's extremely sharp and definitely doing Fine Gael favours. First time I've seen someone being able to withstand the rather domineering personality of Lenihan.

I really really really hope it's him and not Burton as finance minister. Though he's almost as bad really. His ****e about finding the 90 million somewhere else was unbearable. Just pandering to the idiots who think that there are untold billions to be saved by cutting back on "waste". And they'll never achieve that reduction in public sector numbers while in government with Labour.

jumpguy

sock puppet wrote: »

I really really really hope it's him and not Burton as finance minister. Though he's almost as bad really. His ****e about finding the 90 million somewhere else was unbearable. Just pandering to the idiots who think that there are untold billions to be saved by cutting back on "waste". And they'll never achieve that reduction in public sector numbers while in government with Labour.

Tbh, I reckon FG would easily make government with independents or something, but time will tell I guess.

He basically said that the government isn't strong enough to face up the unions, who are most certainly not holding up their side of the Croke Park deal. And he's right...

Pygmalion

jumpguy wrote: »

He basically said that the government isn't strong enough to face up the unions, who are most certainly not holding up their side of the Croke Park deal. And he's right...

[citation needed]

sock puppet

jumpguy wrote: »

Tbh, I reckon FG would easily make government with independents or something, but time will tell I guess.

He basically said that the government isn't strong enough to face up the unions, who are most certainly not holding up their side of the Croke Park deal. And he's right...

You think they'll win enough seats? They'd need to receive a large amount of transfers from FF voters first of all...