Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To explain, the student support framework is decided at the beginning of the year and then we do an estimate of what it will cost. I am not at liberty to take money that is saved on that scheme and, halfway through the year, decide that I will run a new scheme. One has to go by a budget. There has been a small drop-off in the number of students getting grants. They are down by about 1,700 compared to last year so there has been a bit of a reduction.

Roughly 22,000 students are on the non-adjacent rate, while 19,000 are on the ordinary rate. There is the special rate in respect of which the split is roughly 50:50 between the adjacent and non-adjacent rates. The difficulty is where one has a criterion and the distance is 45 km, if one changes the figure, it will significantly change the cost. One has to do it as part of a scheme and announce it at the beginning of the year in order that everybody will know where he or she stands. I cannot change the distance arbitrarily when the scheme is showing some savings because in other areas of the Estimate we do not have a saving.

In October we make our best stab at what the take-up will be of different schemes and fund them on that basis. As such, it cannot be 100% accurate, but it does reflect a recovery in income levels that there has been a little drop off in qualification levels. Roughly half of all students qualify for some student contribution. This year the limit is €79,000. A big part of our investment at third level is in the provision of direct support for students. I do not have the option of making a change mid-year.