Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

Last week the Minister for Education and Skills commented on proposed changes to the third level grants scheme. He indicated there was a bias towards the self-employed in the agricultural community who were able to manipulate their income in a manner which enabled them or their children to avail of education grants.

I first want to ask if the Tánaiste supports those comments. If so, what legislation does the Government propose to bring forward to treat the self-employed in the agricultural community differently from everybody else in terms of how their incomes are recorded and taxed? I thought his comments were somewhat unfair to the agricultural community and, indeed, to the self-employed.

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