THE two main opposition parties are hoping for the support of student voters on plans to reform the college grants scheme, after proposed Government legislation on the issue failed to make it to the Oireachtas.

AFTER reading your report headlined “Romanians hit own countrymen in €400 scam” (Irish Examiner, January 29), I wondered if the barriers the Department of Social and Family Affairs presents to migrants looking for PPS numbers are not helping create an environment for their exploitation.

WORKING parents on the minimum wage face bills of up to €1,350 for uniforms and books for each child at school but are entitled to no State help to meet these rising expenses, the Labour Party has claimed.

THE country’s remaining sub-post offices could face extinction because more and more social welfare payments are being processed through banks, Irish Postmasters Union (IPU) president Joe McArdle has said.

Q. What were the main points relating to the unemployed and the ‘working poor’?

PARENTS of hundreds of severely disabled children struggling to meet care costs are to have their Government aid reduced in the latest Department of Health cutbacks.