Mr. Chris Clifford:

Those issues are very common, especially on distance limits. The flexibility on that is lacking. I was Munster Technological University, MTU, Kerry students' union president and we experienced several situations like that, especially among those travelling from rural Ireland. They travel on a road but obviously SUSI looks at the shortest distance possible, so it might say 44 km but it is 47 km or 48 km, so they do not qualify as they are not below the 45 km threshold. It also has a lot of mental health implications, as the Deputy says. There could be situations where the student has not talked to their parents for years on end and to try to get documentation is a real struggle for them. Those are a couple of examples but I will pass over to Mr. O'Mahony for a few more.