IFA Rejects Any Attempt to Include Productive Assets for 3rd-level Assessment

IFA President John Bryan has re-iterated IFA’s outright opposition to any attempt to include productive assets in the assessment for 3rd-level education grants, saying it will make it even more difficult for children from low-income farm families to get to college.

John Bryan said he had noted comments made on this issue by Minister Ruairi Quinn recently, where he appeared to focus on liquid assets rather than productive assets.

The IFA President said, “Minister Quinn has given us an assurance in the past that he did not want to see the children of farm families deprived of the opportunity to attend third-level”.

John Bryan said, “The existing method of assessment of self-employed income for the maintenance grant already disallows a number of expenses that are included in income tax computation. To include productive assets in the maintenance grant assessment would further discriminate against the self-employed, including farmers. These assets are required by self-employed businesses to generate income, and are not a measure of additional ability to pay”.

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