Mr. Niall Egan:

On the extension point, I fully accept that it is not beyond our wit to go from 12 to 15 months. As I said previously, our first extension was 12 months and the second one was 24 months. It makes sense to align with an academic year but it also makes sense that similar provisions are aligned across Government Departments. That is something that we will definitely take on board.

On the fair deal scheme, your questions are predominantly for the Department of Health. I am going to ask my colleague Mr. Flynn to come in shortly. It is obviously a significant change and you are right to highlight that people may not want to empty the family home. I would see that as a significant issue speaking personally, but I do not know the extent of that and I cannot tell you how frequent the renting of a home is that is involved with someone who is in the fair deal scheme. The Department's perspective is that we do not set out ground rules or anything such as you described in terms of how the student interacts with the landlord. Our regulations are specifically confined to the means test. I know there is advice available but I might ask Mr. Flynn to come in.