Comment: If the Government were really serious about getting more people into college, it wouldn't have altered the back-to-education allowance, writes Colm Jordan, president of the Union of Students in Ireland.

The Government's concern about access to higher education is a farce given the cuts in the back-to-education allowance. Recent amendments to the allowance mean students in receipt of it are no longer entitled to claim during the summer. The allowance has also been cut completely for postgraduates, with the exception of those studying education. These cuts will have profound implications for many of our members.

Since its inception, in 1993, the back-to-education allowance has been a tremendous success, providing many people with a second chance at education. It has given them the opportunity to empower themselves with the knowledge and skills to fully participate in society.

Many of the people it has benefited were unemployed for years. Often, being out of work had excluded them from society on many levels. They became dependent on unemployment assistance, and their outlook on life and their prospects became grim. The allowance broke the cycle of disadvantage and unemployment in communities throughout Ireland.

The end of the payment during the summer will be a disincentive for them. Although the rules say you can still be eligible for unemployment assistance if you are seen to be actively seeking work, this is at the discretion of the social-welfare office.

Many people may be deterred from signing off the live register in the first place if they feel there is a risk of their not being able to sign back on without much form-filling. As the economy becomes increasingly unstable and unemployment rises, I seriously doubt whether recipients of the allowance will be able to find work for the summer.

The cost of going to college for nine months of the academic year is significant even without the additional registration fee of €670. The Union of Students in Ireland's cost-of-college survey last year found that students spent an average of €6,148.08 in those nine months.

Given that the value of unemployment assistance for a recipient of the back-to-education allowance is €124.80 a week, this equates to €4,867.20 over nine months, leaving a deficit of €1,280.88 for students somehow to make up.

Recipients of the allowance are expected to pay for their accommodation and other living costs for the three summer months with no State aid, putting them in very precarious positions. Given that they could not find work before being accepted on the back-to-education scheme, it seems unlikely that they will have any greater prospect of employment in the summer until they have completed their education.

Furthermore, the Department of Social and Family Affairs has abolished the student summer jobs scheme, which provided students with a paid work placement.

There is no denying that Ireland, like the rest of Europe, needs to increase the participation rate of mature students in higher education. Lifelong learning is becoming more and more important as Ireland's demographics change: mature students are an increasingly integral part of higher education as the number of school leavers entering third level begins to decline.

The Government has disregarded these issues and the commitments it made to mature students in the White Paper on adult education in 2000, however: the cuts in the back-to- education allowance will almost certainly affect mature students.

The pressure to work during the summer, coupled with family responsibilities and other financial commitments, such as mortgages, may make mature students reconsider whether to return to education in the first place, with the result that they will stay on the dole or fail to complete their courses.

The cut in State support during the summer will also reduce the number of long-term unemployed seeking to return to education if it means they jeopardise their unemployment assistance for three months of the year.

The Department of Social and Family Affairs is creating an unemployment trap: recipients will opt to continue signing on the live register and refrain from returning to education because of the difficulty of qualifying for State support such as unemployment assistance during the summer.

It is sanctimonious of the Taoiseach to criticise TDs for failing to act on the issue of access for the disadvantaged while he sits back and watches his officials in the Department of Social and Family Affairs denigrate the basic right to education with no regard for the consequences.