THE State's only pre university course for disabled people, which was due to be scrapped next month due to lack of funding, has been saved by a last minute £50,000 grant from the Department of Education.
Since it was started eight years ago, 70 people have gone on to third level education through the PreUniversity and College Course (PUCC) run by the National Training and Development Institute a REHAB company - at Roslyn Park College in Dublin.
They follow the Leaving Certificate syllabus with added supports such as individual tuition, counselling, braille books and computers with voice outputs and large text.
Until now, the course has been financed entirely from the NTDI's own resources, the director of Roslyn Park College, Mr Daniel Perry, said, but this was now unsustainable.
Mr Perry said the Department's £50,000 part payment would enable them to continue the course next year. He hoped the inter departmental committee set up to oversee the implementation of the report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities would recommend permanent funding later this year.
A PUCC student, Ms Tina Lowe, who lost her sight four years ago as a result of viral meningitis, said she needed a degree to return to her profession as a teacher. "This course gives us the opportunity to realise our dreams of a university course and achieve equal status."