Hildegarde Naughton (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact that Galway is one of 11 counties that has increased its grant allocations to third level students. In the 2013-14 academic year, almost 5,400 students received third level funding. Since the introduction of the centralised system there has been a general reduction in grants given to people living in rural areas and an increase in the number given to people living in urban areas. Although there does not appear to be any statistics on this, we were told that is due to a uniform policy now being adapted by Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI. I am a little concerned that some of the reasons given are anecdotal and no studies seem to have been carried out on this. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister into the House to discuss this matter at her convenience.