Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak on this very important matter this evening. I support the call that certainty and fairness be applied to rents for students in third level education. Students and parents, especially those who cannot access SUSI - and many middle income earners are not entitled to a grant - find themselves under immense financial pressure to go through the third level education process. Accommodation, college fees, living expenses and travel can easily exceed €9,000 and even €10,000 for each student.

Students from all around Kerry have long distances to travel to Cork, Limerick, Galway, Dublin and Waterford from places like Lauragh, Kenmare, Cahirciveen, Dingle, Tralee, Killarney, Listowel and all the places in between. These are savage distances to reach their accommodation and their colleges. I have seen students who work during their holidays and at weekends and who earned between €3,000 and €5,000, if they had a good job, at weekends, holidays and bank holidays to help their parents but that puts their parents over the threshold and deprives them of the grant. This anomaly should be rectified because it is good for students and youngsters to work. If they start off by working they will continue working. They can easily go the wrong way, the easy way, if they do not start off by working. It is vital that something be done to ensure that, whatever else happens, the money the student earns is not included in the assessment for the grant application. I appeal to the Minister of State to consider that because I have seen it hurt them when it is taken into account in the parents’ assessment.

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