Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

The Deputy has raised a few supplementary questions and I will try to deal with them quickly. As regards the scheme that will come into effect for September, I will try to have it published as soon as possible. I will communicate directly with the Deputy in that regard.

With regard to the modernisation of the grant system generally, progress has been made in that the administration of the student grant will now be done by one body and it will be streamlined. We hope therefore that the frustration felt by many students due to delays in obtaining grants will be reduced or eliminated. In that case, they will get their money much more quickly than has been the case in the past.

With regard to means-testing, yes, I have made such comments. This criticism goes back a long time. However, I met with representatives of the ICMSA when they had an open-day presentation in Buswells Hotel and discussed the matter with them informally. They assured me that in modern terms, because of changes in agriculture with which the Deputy will be more familiar than myself, the accounts are more up to date, transparent and readily accessible than was perhaps the case in the past. That is all to the good and it will mean that people who are entitled to get grants and other support will do so on the basis not so much of merit but of income. In the past, there were real fears concerning the manipulation by self-employed people - whatever their activity happened to be - of their accounts in a way that a PAYE worker could not do. Hopefully, the new system will avoid that difficulty, which is a legacy from the past.

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