Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. I want to record that the SUSI system has been much improved this year. Great advances have been made. The number of cases coming into my office this year is quite small. I had to deal with hundreds of cases last year. We are talking about a small number of cases of parental estrangement. I will mention the example of a woman under the age of 23 who is married and is living with her spouse. She is being assessed on the basis of her parents' income because she was living with them on 1 October last, even though she is now living separately from them with her spouse. They have their own income stream. These little issues are creating problems. Maybe we need to consider widening the burden of proof. The current approach, whereby the agreement of a HSE official or a social worker is needed, is too narrow and is creating extreme financial hardship for a small number of students.

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