Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

It will not cause problems for anyone if there is no one to apply to the scheme. It is not helpful to have a scheme in legislation that is not available to anyone because there is no one to avail of it. This simply states that the scheme can be wound down if, in 20 or 30 years' time, nobody is applying for it because none of the 16,000 or so people who want to avail of it and who have decided to the avail of it for whatever reason is left or, unfortunately, because of the timeframe involved, may sadly have passed away and not been able to avail of it. This is somewhat common practice. If a scheme is not operating and no one is there or wants to avail of it, it would, after a period, be wound down.

The amendment states clearly that there must be at least three years during which no one avails of it. Even then, I think any Minister would look to see whether it is likely that someone would do so a year, two years or three years later. A decision would have to be taken at that stage. However, this will not prohibit anyone from applying for the educational support under the scheme. It merely states that if the scheme has run its course and no one is availing of it, there is an opportunity for the Minister to wind it down. Overall, I think and hope something we agree on is that the scheme's criteria will be reviewed to make sure it is working effectively and well and that those who want to avail of it will do so when they can. The Minister will review the educational component of the scheme "not later than 3 years from the date of the previous review". I thank Senator Boyhan and other colleagues for their engagement on this.