Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister to the House. The matter I am raising pertains to the Department of Education and Science. It is rare that I raise a specific constituent's query as a single matter on the Adjournment but I do so today to highlight an anomaly that exists in the third level maintenance grant structure. It involves a 28 year old lone parent from my constituency who, some years ago, managed to get support from South Dublin County Council to build an extension to her parents' house in which she and her two children could live. Prior to that, she had been on the waiting list for a council house. Public money was used to fund the extension.

When this very brave woman resat her leaving certificate, she decided to go to college and obtained a place in a university in Dublin. She applied for a maintenance grant and was informed that, because she was living in a dwelling of the kind in question, all of the income in that house would determine whether she was entitled to such a grant. She was living in an extension, which was an entirely separate unit within the house. Had she obtained a council house or a corporation house, it would have cost the State substantially more to house her and she would have been automatically entitled to a maintenance grant as a single mother in that circumstance.

The woman was trying to do the best for her children and family and trying to educate herself and afford to herself a certain opportunity. The State is standing in the way of her getting an important grant that would make all the difference because it will not recognise that this single mother is living in an entirely separate dwelling to that of her parents' house, although it is an extension thereof. She pays separate telephone bills and pays rent to the local authority. I appeal to the Department of Education and Science to re-examine the case and amend the rules on third level grants in order that we can help those who need help. As a result of the bureaucratic mess and mindset, the person in question is being excluded. If she lived ten doors away in a council house, she would get everything, but because she built an extension with public funds and pays rent to the local authority, she gets nothing. That is appalling. This issue must be addressed.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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While I have sympathy for the Senator, equally, I hope he has sympathy for us in the problems we face in drawing up rules. Those of us who draw up rules think we have come up with a fair, compassionate and equitable system. However, perhaps three weeks later, when a case crops us that no one dreamed of, all one can do is scratch one's head and say it was not what was intended. The problem is we have become a rule bound society. We have to meet demands all the time for which we must have clear and written criteria. One of the problems in getting rid of flexibility is that one becomes more rule bound. While I have sympathy for the Senator in the case he is raising, I hope he has sympathy for us in the rules created because of the demands of various Opposition parties.

Financial assistance is available to eligible students under the higher education grants scheme which is administered by the local authorities under the aegis of the Department of Education and Science. The position is that, generally, students entering approved courses for the first time are eligible for grants, including maintenance and tuition fees, where they satisfy the relevant conditions as to age, residence, means, nationality and previous academic attainment.

The higher education grants scheme operates under the Local Authorities (Higher Education Grants) Acts 1968 to 1992 which define a mature student to mean a person of not less than 23 years of age, or such other age as may stand specified for the time being in regulations made by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance, who has secured a place in an approved institution and has reached that age on 1 January, or such other date as may be prescribed from time to time by the Minister with the consent of the Minister of Finance in the year of entry to such institution.

Mature students are categorised as either independent mature students or mature students dependent on parents. An independent mature student is defined to mean a mature student who was not ordinarily resident at home with his or her parents from the October preceding his or her entry to an approved course. Independent mature students are assessed without reference to either their parents' income or address.

When assessing the means of students other than independent mature students, the Acts specify that the students' means and those of their parents or guardians must be below a prescribed limit. This provision requires parental income to be taken into account, irrespective of the individual circumstances in any case where the student is not an independent mature student. The Department of Education and Science has received additional information in the case in question from the relevant local authority. Given the complexity of the case, further consideration is being given to the appeal. When the Department has completed its review of the case, it will be in a position to determine whether the candidate may be assessed as an independent mature candidate for the purpose of her grant application under the terms of the higher education grants scheme.

Apart from the funding provided through the student support maintenance grant schemes, financial assistance is also available from the Department through the student assistance fund, the objective of which is to assist students — this brings us back to the need for flexibility — in a sensitive and compassionate manner who, due to their financial circumstances, might otherwise be unable to continue their third level studies. Further information on this fund is available from the student access officer at the relevant college.

I thank the Senator for raising this issue in the House.