Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for his understanding. I was tied up with a Zoom meeting. As the Acting Leader well knows, many students, last year and this year, through no fault of their own, have been unable to find summer work at home or abroad and have had no choice but to resort to accepting the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP. Unfortunately, that payment is now working against them in the context of their SUSI grant for this year because last year's PUP income is being added to the family income. In many cases, this is putting them over the threshold under to attain the SUSI grant. Those in this cohort have probably suffered more than anyone throughout the pandemic. They have suffered a loss of opportunity and a loss of contact with friends, and they have been under enormous pressure. In many cases, the money was not saved. It was spent on online shopping and various bits and pieces in the expectation that it would not count as part of overall household income. This is putting an intolerable burden on students' parents. In many cases, the parents have also been on the PUP or have been on a reduced income and have gone through so much.

I appeal to the Acting Leader to intercede with the Department of Education regarding the higher education grant to try to ensure that the PUP will not be regarded as part of a family's income in the awarding of the SUSI grant. It is a one-off payment. The pandemic was a one-off event. We have supported so many sectors of society. We now have a job of work to support students, particularly those on lower incomes who would normally be provided with a SUSI grant and whose PUP might push them over the threshold by a couple of hundred euro and, in some cases, make their return to college impossible. It will certainly cause enormous pressure for some families. I ask that we engage with the Department to see whether there is a way around this debacle.