Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 4 Dec 1990

Vol. 403 No. 4

Written Answers. - Higher Education Grant Eligibility.

Joe Sherlock

Question:

72 Mr. Sherlock asked the Minister for Education if a person whose eligibility for a higher education grant is determined by the parents' income can qualify, in her own right, if she becomes an unmarried mother and qualifies for a social welfare allowance as such.

Proinsias De Rossa

Question:

272 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for Education if her attention has been drawn to the anomaly whereby married persons on social employment schemes, whose spouses are working, are not eligible for third level education grants because their earnings when added to the spouse's earnings are over the limit; if, in view of the fact that unemployed persons are encouraged to go on social employment schemes and earn only around £2,000 per annum instead of the maximum grant of £3,068 plus unemployment assistance of around £10 per week which they would receive if they were not working, if she intends to take any action to deal with this anomaly; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for Education (Mrs. O'Rourke)

Section 21 (a) (b) of the Local Authorities (Higher Education Grants) Act, 1968 allows local authorities who administer the scheme, to award grants only to persons whose parents' or guardians' means together with any means possessed by the candidate himself/herself are within the prescribed limits.

There is no upper age limit in the scheme at present and it is, therefore, open to a single, married or mature student to sit the leaving certificate examination in the normal way for the purposes of qualifying for a grant on grounds of academic attainment and means as determined by reference to parental income.

There is no provision in the scheme for reckonable income to be determined by reference to the applicant's income and/or that of the applicant's spouse and an amendment of the 1968 Act would be necessary to cater for it.

This is a matter which I propose to have examined in my Department in the context of the scheme for the 1991-92 academic year.