Linda Nelson Murray (Fine Gael)

I very much welcome this motion. Coming from a really hard-working family, there was no way I was going to get away with not getting out to work early, combined, of course, with my studies. I worked all through secondary school, taking a break in my leaving cert year, and I then went back out again throughout college. It was not a huge amount of work but it was one or two days, particularly at weekends. This was really helpful for living expenses, as I was away from home, and, of course, for the odd social night out, which is all part of college time.

Presently, if your course is full time and you worked and studied last year, SUSI can deduct a portion of your income earned outside of term time to improve your rate of grant, and for this year it is €8,424. Known as holiday earnings, this deduction will apply to income earned during the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays. This does not make any sense. What about your weekend work? As an owner of a small business that hires many students - we have 25 employees - we see more and more staff, especially those in secondary school who are moving on to college, worried about working any more than one day a week, or even working a full day, as it will affect their chances of getting a SUSI grant.

I like to think that each of us here in the Chamber, particularly in the Fine Gael Party, promote hard work and instil in our young people that getting up and going to work is a good thing to do. Because we have a very low threshold for SUSI, however, this stops people from working the hours they may choose to work. The minimum wage for a 19-year-old is on average €12.15 per hour. If they work two weeks at Easter, two weeks at Christmas and eight weeks in the summer, it leaves them in a position where they can only work eight hours a day for the rest of the year. That means those who come to us can only do a Saturday or Sunday; they cannot do Saturday and Sunday. It does not make any sense.

I ask that we increase to €12,000 the threshold for students working. This will allow them to work two days per week, or perhaps a couple of evenings, without it impacting their SUSI grant. Why are we not encouraging younger people into the workforce in a hybrid approach of working and studying and helping their parents with the costs of going into further education?