Ms Clare Duffy:

When we work with families of someone who has early-onset dementia we see how inappropriate the fair deal model is when you try and superimpose it on a family who have a mortgage, even though I know that the mortgage is deductible, and children in college. You could have someone where dad, for example, is in a nursing home, under the fair deal scheme, and you have young adults in the house who are going to college. That fair deal contribution that the family is making is not deductible for SUSI grants, or it had not been the last time I looked at the scheme. I wish to make the important point that the fair deal model was designed for older people and not for younger people with early-onset dementia who, unfortunately, may need residential care.