Married student’s grant assessed on parents’ pay

A married woman has been told her college grant application has to be assessed on the income of her parents who she no longer lives with.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has said he will examine difficulties like this being caused for some students, and the level of proof needed from students who are estranged from their parents to be assessed independently, after hearing of two cases in the Dáil.

Sinn Féin education spokesperson Jonathan O’Brien referred to a woman who is aged under 23 and lives with her spouse.