Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)

I welcome the Minister's assistance on those cases. As the Minister quite rightly pointed out, people who make second-chance applications and move courses should be supported in a bigger way than is currently the case. The extension of the timeline should be looked at and the acceleration of more online courses, which will reduce the cost to the person, would be of assistance as well.

I also want to raise another case. A constituent of mine, who has two students in college, received a very modest gift as a result of losing their parent. It was a grandparent of the third level students. This was a very small will that was left. The parents used the gift, which was very modest, to part-pay off the mortgage on their property. This family was no better off in terms of their income and day-to-day spending and yet, because of this will, their children were completely struck off from a SUSI grant. The family had to take one of their children out of college. As the inheritance was so small, they will be less well-off than if they never got it in the first place. I know we need a rules-based system but we should look at the anomaly that arises when a modest inheritance is used, as in this case, to pay off the mortgage. This family was no better off. In fact, they are actually less well-off in terms of that. It needs to be looked at. I would greatly appreciate it if the Minister could consider this in his role in the months ahead.

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