Vol. 408 No. 8
94 Mrs. T. Ahearn asked the Minister for Education the estimated cost of (1) modifying the means test in the higher education grant scheme so as to extend grants to families with two children at university with incomes £4,500 higher than the reckonable income at which grants are possible at present and (2) easing the means test by a further £4,500 reckonable income in respect of each additional child at university.
As the number of families with two or more children concurrently attending approved third-level institutions is not known to my Department I am unable to provide an estimate of the costs which would arise from the type of modifications to the scheme which the Deputy has in mind.
Under the Programme for Economic and Social Progress the amendment of the scheme to take account of the circumstances of families with more than one child in third level education is to be considered.
