Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 355: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her views on allowing people who are on the one parent family allowance and are under 23 years of age who want to return to college to be assessed on their own income for the third level grant; and the action which can be taken for a person like this who wants to return to college but wants to be assessed on his or her own income. [13964/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Under the terms of my Department's 2005 third level student maintenance grant schemes the position is that, generally speaking, students who are entering approved courses for the first time are eligible for grants where they satisfy the prescribed conditions with regard to age, residence, means, nationality and previous academic attainment. A mature student is defined for the purposes of the schemes as a candidate who is at least 23 years of age on 1 January of the year of entry or re-entry to an approved course.

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

When assessing the means of students other than independent mature students, the means test provision of the scheme specifies that the students' means and those of their parents or guardians must be below a prescribed limit. This provision requires that parental income be taken into account irrespective of the individual circumstances in any case where the student is not an independent mature student. It is not proposed, at present, to change the current definition of mature students.