Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In June, I made a suggestion to the Tánaiste in relation to addressing an anomaly in the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, application process around the linking of sibling applications. This would have avoided an avalanche of appeals. I was promised a response and as usual I did not hear anything. I raise SUSI again today in the context of the Finance Bill before the Dáil. Students from families on low incomes are being denied the special rate award, even though they are under the miserly income threshold of €24,000, because they do not have an eligible long-term social protection payment making up part of that income. Surely the Minister will agree that the important criterion here is the assessed level of income, not its source. Will the Minister commit, in collaboration with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, to use the current budgetary cycle to change this? It would make a big difference to many hard-pressed students and parents in County Donegal and across the country.

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