Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

With the Chairperson's permission, I will take the questions that were common to all four questioners first. I will then go back to the individual questions from Deputies McConalogue, O'Brien and Ó Ríordáin.

As regards capital assets, the only assessment made in the allocation of application for support is on the income of the family house. No other asset test is currently applied. Whether it is a small business, a farm or any other kind of enterprise, no assessment is made of the value of that particular business in its entirety. We set up an interdepartmental working party.

It has produced a report, which is being finalised, and it made a series of recommendations, some of which have got into the public domain. This is not against farmers. It is not against small business. It is about fairness. The Government has not yet had a chance to discuss it. Given the season, because of the St. Patrick's Day ministerial commitments plus Easter - and in my case the teachers' conferences, which affect all of us in this room - I do not expect there will be a definitive decision on that until some time in April.

Various points of view have been expressed. Some expressed the view that this is some kind of anti-rural position on my part. It is not. There are cases in which the potential capacity of substantial businesses, be they agricultural or otherwise, to fund the fees of participating in education are discounted. Businesses need working capital, particularly those that are cyclical in nature, because cashflow is erratic. There is no intention to intervene in a situation in which one would reduce that working capital to a point at which one would endanger the business; nor would I want to do so. That would not be smart. We are trying to have a system that is fairer than the current one. I do not expect to be in a position to bring something into the public domain in an official way until the middle of April.