Vol. 477 No. 5
223 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Education the reason a person (details supplied) in County Mayo is not receiving the full amount of a third-level maintenance grant when she should be entitled to this amount as a mature student. [9846/97]
Under the 1996 higher education grants scheme, independent mature students are defined to be mature students who are not ordinarily resident at home with their parents. Their entitlement to a grant is assessed without reference to either their parents' income or address.
The address of independent mature students for the purpose of determining the rate of grant payable is their residence for the purpose of attending college. If this address is 15 miles or less from the college, the adjacent rate of grant is payable. If the address is more than 15 miles from the college, the non-adjacent rate of grant is payable.
Where independent mature students can produce evidence that they are maintaining a residence, other than their address while attending college and the non-college residence is more than 15 miles from the college, the local authority can regard that address as the student's normal residence and award a non-adjacent maintenance grant.
I understand from Dublin Corporation, the body statutorily entrusted with the administration of the higher education grants scheme, that the student in question is an independent mature student whose residence is within 15 miles of the college attended. The student in question is therefore only entitled to the adjacent rate of maintenance grant.
