Marie Moloney (Labour)

I, too, wish a happy international women's day to everybody, including all the young ladies in the Gallery. I offer congratulations to Senator White on her recent achievement - well done to her.

We are nearing the time of year for students to apply for third-level grants. This year those applications are being centralised and the last thing we need is a repeat of the fiasco with the centralisation of medical card applications. Will the Leader ask the Minister for Education and Skills to attend the House for a question and answer session on this issue? He could also answer questions from Senators on other issues. He should tell us everything is in order for the applications to proceed because we must not have a repeat of what happened with the medical cards.

I would like the message to go out to parents that now is the time to apply for the P21, not when one is making the application. At that stage the whole country will be applying and there will be an enormous backlog in the Revenue offices. If they apply immediately or during the coming weeks they will be ready to send the P21 with their application and will not have to be contacted. For years I have been helping people fill application forms for a third level grant. They are quite detailed, require a great deal of information and can be daunting for parents. Finding out what is needed can cause much confusion. People are in and out of their local offices asking the local officer questions but that will not happen this year if the application process is centralised. The Leader might ask the Minister to attend at his earliest convenience so that every Member can be assured, along with parents and students, that everything is ready to roll in the centralisation of these applications.