UCD STUDENTS' union president John Nesbit has expressed reservations about his predecessor's successful application for a £3,000 grant to attend the World Student Debating Championships in the Philippines this Christmas.

Former union president Ian Walsh and fellow UCD student, Rossa Fanning, applied to UCD's finance committee, while Walsh was still president of the union, for the grant to be awarded to them personally (as a debating team). As students' union president, Walsh was also a member of the college's governing body, which has final approval on such applications.

The finance committee - of which Walsh was not a member - recommended Walsh and Fanning get the grant; its recommendation was subsequently accepted by Walsh's colleagues on the governing body. "When such an application is made during someone's term as students' union president, obviously questions are going to be raised," says Nesbit, who was an ally of Walsh. "Personally I have reservations about the fact that the grant was paid to Rossa and Ian directly. It would have been better to give it to the societies. While it would be acknowledged that they are two of the best people UCD could send, there are talented debaters who would have liked to compete for the places."

However, Nesbit says, while the personal application might have been unwise, it was above board. "Any use of the position of students' union president to obtain a grant from college would be reprehensible, but I think Ian and Rossa applied for the grant on their own merits.

"I'm not defending in any way the fact that the grant was paid to Ian and Rossa directly, but I don't think there was anything underhand in it."

Walsh says it was "in the nature of UCD" that academics and other staff who applied to the finance committee and governing authority for grants knew members of both bodies.

"I don't think this can be portrayed as a contrived application for a grant or as being opportunist."

He said he and Fanning didn't seek the grant for the debating societies because they felt it "would be somewhat unfair" if, with their experience, they were to take part in the UCD run-offs for the World Championships against younger teams.

As a result of their action in obtaining the grant, UCD will send two teams to the Philippines. "The L&H and the Law Society are only sending one team," Walsh says. "It would be better if that place went to younger team debaters. We checked this with auditors of both societies before we applied." Tony Scott, public affairs manager of UCD, said that both Walsh and Fanning were former auditors of UCD debating societies who had been "quite successful" as debaters and they had "shown initiative" in applying for the grant. He said that, though the governing authority approved the grant, Walsh had not been a member of the finance committee.