Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I wish to return to an issue I raised on yesterday's Order of Business. On today's "Morning Ireland", the Minister for Education and Science confirmed that interest accruing on SSIA accounts is being regarded as income when it comes to determining the eligibility of families to claim third level grant support. Irrespective of whether this affects one family or 21,000 families, it is wrong to assess interest on SSIAs in this way. The Leader of the House was correct to remark yesterday that such an assessment will put groups of borderline families over the limit. Similar arguments have already been made in my constituency and we now have confirmation on the matter from the Minister.

I want the Government to take a decision to disregard interest accruing from SSIAs for the purpose of assessed income, in view of the fact that it is a one-off savings scheme rather than a continuous deposit account. I urge the Minister, who is finely tuned to public opinion, to resolve this issue by calling on local authorities not to press low and middle income families on their assessments. I will congratulate her if she can resolve the issue by Friday at 5 p.m.

Throughout the country, enumerators are working on behalf of local authorities to check the accuracy of the register of electors. A good debate was held in this House five months ago in which all sides called for increased support in ensuring a more accurate and up-to-date register. However, it has been brought to my attention that if someone calls to a house but finds nobody there, the resident is struck off the register if he or she does not subsequently contact the local authority. As many as 20% of voters in County Louth have been struck off the register because of failures on the part of householders to contact the local authority there.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government needs to advise this House on the exact guidelines on the issue. A dangerous prospect arises when people are taken off the electoral register and, while we all wish to see an accurate register, we need to address the issue of people being struck off merely because they have not contacted the local authority.