I am taking this question on behalf of Deputy Peter Roche. Has the Department examined the impact of the current means-testing arrangements for the SUSI grant for those applicants who continue to reside in the family home and thus have to be assessed on their parental income? Obviously, the number of people in this situation is rising, potentially, because of the housing crisis. Has the Department engaged with the Department of Social Protection regarding potential reforms to these arrangements?

Sentiment score: 0.04

According to the Skillnet Ireland talent report for 2025, 58% of businesses report that they have difficulty in attracting required skills. There is a huge opportunity for society and for the individuals themselves in people reskilling and upskilling, thereby contributing more to society and improving their own lives. However, we are effectively putting barriers in place, preventing people from engaging in this upskilling by not enabling them to fully access all the supports that would be available to them were it not for their personal circumstances. In order to finance their return to education, people are returning to live at home, having been in rental accommodation or overseas. Many people in Dublin Rathdown have been in touch with me to highlight how they were not aware that, if they allowed their children to move back home, they would suddenly no longer be eligible. These are individuals who regard themselves as fully mature and independent. They just want to make a greater contribution to society and improve their own opportunities.

Sentiment score: 0.49

I acknowledge the improvements that have been made to the various schemes. The overall scheme does not take into account how the world in which we are operating has changed. We are now in a world where people are expected to engage in lifelong learning. People return to education, then go back to work and then return to education. We need to demonstrate our support for that. As we know, we are also facing a housing crisis. As part of that, we are changing the rules to allow modular homes to be built on the site of the family home. We will now see in Dublin the situation that pertains in the country where people share an eircode with their family while living completely separate from them, resulting in all of the income being rolled in together. The system as originally designed is not fit for purpose in the modern era. It needs to be looked at. We need to ensure that people can access these supports because we need to have people consistently upskilling and reskilling in order to contribute to society and improve their own outcomes. Of course, we need to ensure the system is not taken advantage of but we need to provide those supports for people to encourage that lifelong learning.

Sentiment score: 0.19