Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House. The matter I am raising pertains to the Department of Education and Science. It is rare that I raise a specific constituent's query as a single matter on the Adjournment but I do so today to highlight an anomaly that exists in the third level maintenance grant structure. It involves a 28 year old lone parent from my constituency who, some years ago, managed to get support from South Dublin County Council to build an extension to her parents' house in which she and her two children could live. Prior to that, she had been on the waiting list for a council house. Public money was used to fund the extension.

When this very brave woman resat her leaving certificate, she decided to go to college and obtained a place in a university in Dublin. She applied for a maintenance grant and was informed that, because she was living in a dwelling of the kind in question, all of the income in that house would determine whether she was entitled to such a grant. She was living in an extension, which was an entirely separate unit within the house. Had she obtained a council house or a corporation house, it would have cost the State substantially more to house her and she would have been automatically entitled to a maintenance grant as a single mother in that circumstance.

The woman was trying to do the best for her children and family and trying to educate herself and afford to herself a certain opportunity. The State is standing in the way of her getting an important grant that would make all the difference because it will not recognise that this single mother is living in an entirely separate dwelling to that of her parents' house, although it is an extension thereof. She pays separate telephone bills and pays rent to the local authority. I appeal to the Department of Education and Science to re-examine the case and amend the rules on third level grants in order that we can help those who need help. As a result of the bureaucratic mess and mindset, the person in question is being excluded. If she lived ten doors away in a council house, she would get everything, but because she built an extension with public funds and pays rent to the local authority, she gets nothing. That is appalling. This issue must be addressed.