Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I remember the Minister's predecessor once saying that we, as legislators, come into this House not to accept things as they are but to change them. That is our job, as legislators. While officials will always say this is the scheme that is there at the moment, and it is too difficult or cumbersome to change it, or there is too much work involved, I do not accept that. I did not come here to roll along; I came here to make changes for the better and to improve circumstances for people.

I urge the Minister to lead from the front on the political side. While the departmental officials might be keen to tell us in their script that they have no plans to change this at the moment, it is our job in politics to listen to the people, get their experience and come back in here to lead change. I welcome the Minister's commitment to attend the committee with her officials so we can debate this in more detail and deal with it in a more comprehensive way.

There are a number of other issues. There is the whole difficulty with PAYE workers, who find the grants system extremely frustrating because it is so black and white and given the P60 states the bottom-line figures. On the other hand, and we have to call a spade a spade, people who are self-employed have some wriggle room in terms of using previous years to help their eligibility for a grant. That is a real difficulty for PAYE workers which we must acknowledge. We also have to move away from the black and white finality of the baseline and the approach that if people are €1 over, they are not eligible. I do not think that is fair or equitable, and it is not something the Government should stand over.

The Minister referred to the issue of a change in circumstances. The reality is that if people have a change in circumstances, they have to prove this change of circumstances will affect them for the duration of their time in college. That is a difficult threshold to cross because, while the person can prove it for one year, perhaps given the financial collapse and everything that has gone wrong, the awarding authority can say that things will pick up next year or the year after.

Without going into all of the details, the system is outdated and needs to be re-evaluated and reviewed. I would appreciate a commitment from the Minister to do this. I would certainly be willing to play my part in a review of the current system at an Oireachtas committee.

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