Jim Higgins
Question:118 Mr. J. Higgins asked the Minister for Education if it is essential that mature students applying and qualifying for third level grants must live away from the family home.
Written Answers. - Third Level Grants.
As from the 1992-93 academic year, grants are available under the higher education grants scheme and related schemes to mature students who have secured places to pursue full-time courses in approved institutions.
For the purposes of those schemes, mature students who ordinarily reside at home with their parents are deemed to be dependent on them. Accordingly, in order to determine eligibility on means grounds, the schemes provide for the assessment of the reckonable income of the mature students, if any, and of their parents.
Otherwise, the means eligibility of mature students is determined on the basis of the reckonable income of the mature students themselves if any, and of their spouses, if applicable.