Capital assets still included in student grant applications

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn insists he will still have capital assets included in deciding student grant applications, despite opposition of Fine Gael to the plan.

But it will be at least 2015 before there will be any changes, which in December 2011 he said would kick in for students in third level this year.

The controversial move has angered Fine Gael backbenchers in particular, who fear a backlash from farming communities over the possibility of children from agricultural backgrounds becoming ineligible for grants. But despite getting a report this summer from a cross-departmental group on how to find a way to assess capital assets as well as income for grant applications, Mr Quinn did not proceed with the move for the next college year.

“That’s still a measure I intend to bring forward. We need to get a certain degree of equity into the system and I don’t think any of my colleagues in Government are against the principle of equity,” Mr Quinn said.

But rather than its non-introduction next year being the result of Fine Gael pressure or heavy lobbying from farming organisations, the minister said he wants to come up with a method that can be agreed at Government that does not put essential working capital at risk.

“It’s literally about finding a proposal that I can legitimately bring that respects those two principles: that family businesses, and by extension that includes farms, and any kind of business need working capital and there are times when access to working capital is difficult,” he said.

When the move was suggested in his first budget almost two years ago, he predicted it would save €1.5m a year in 2013 and €14m a year after that.

Mr Quinn said nobody could stand over a situation he was made aware of by someone in Co Limerick VEC, that a person who had €300,000 in prize bonds qualified for a grant under the present system.

“This wasn’t working capital, these were savings. [This person] was eligible to get the grant and they weren’t expected to make any contribution of their own,” he said.

But he also admitted that, in the absence of any changes to the grant system, such a situation could still happen.

The 2014 budget saw no cuts to the grant rates payable this year, and the income levels needed to qualify are also unchanged.

Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi), which was criticised last year for delays in processing and paying grants, has said it expects to pay first instalments at the end of October to those who applied before early August and have supplied all the necessary documents.