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The Department of Education have said that the broadening of the system is "an issue of equity and fairness". Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland

Poll: Should means testing for student grants include assets and savings?

Coalition parties are divided over new proposals to broaden the criteria for the means testing of third level grants.

DISCUSSIONS ARE BEING held today over whether means testing should be broadened for student grants.

Proposals include the addition of capital assets and savings, in a move that is believed to have led to divisions between Labour and Fine Gael.

Speaking on Morning Ireland this morning, Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin believed the move to be a positive one:

It is one of the only government schemes which doesn’t take account of the capital value of savings or assets. It led to a situation where an individual who had €270,000 in his bank account but was still eligible.

Farmers in particular are against the move, believing that assets are not the same as income, and should therefore be discounted.

So today we ask: Should means testing for student grants include assets and savings?


Poll Results:

No (1535)
Yes (1190)
I don't know (711)

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