Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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75. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to exclude a student's part-time earnings from the family's income assessment for higher education grant eligibility; his views on whether the inclusion of a student's part-time earnings is a disincentive to work, particularly where family incomes are under pressure; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that such earnings have in many instances put the family income marginally above the qualifying limit and caused student dropout; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32270/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The assessment of means under my Department's student grant scheme is based on gross income from all sources, with certain social welfare and health service executive payments being exempt.

In the assessment of means, a deduction can be made for holiday earnings made by the applicant from employment outside of term time but within the reference period. I increased the value of this income disregard from €3,809 to €4,500 in the 2016 scheme.

The student grant scheme contains a number of qualifying thresholds for various grant values. These gradations allow students just over a threshold margin, to remain in receipt of a grant, albeit at a reduced rate that reflects their relative income vis-à-visother applicants.