Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 45: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason the nominal interest earned in 2004 for special savings accounts and special savings investment accounts is being calculated for mature students when assessing eligibility for top-up grants when this method is not being applied by the Revenue Commissioners in assessing income for the previous tax year as it has not yet been earned; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that such a calculation affects a number of borderline cases that cannot access this income for purchasing educational materials or feeding their families; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27706/05]

Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 61: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the circumstances in which special savings accounts and special savings interest accounts' interest in the previous tax year is calculated as income in assessing means for educational grants. [27707/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 45 and 61 together.

For the purposes of determining reckonable income for the student support schemes, all investments must be declared, including savings certificates, life assurance bonds and other financial instruments where the interest-profit is accumulated and paid out as a lump sum at the end of the investment period.

The amount of income to be included in respect of special savings incentive accounts, SSIAs, is the Government grant earned on the savings in the relevant tax year plus in the case of savings accounts, the gross interest earned in the relevant tax year, and, in the case of investment accounts, the investment profit earned in the relevant tax year. Investment losses sustained in the relevant tax year are deductible.

The treatment of the SSIAs in this regard is consistent with the treatment of similar financial products such as post office savings bonds.