Third Level Education
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-29
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

I fully recognise the distress that has arisen from defective concrete block situation in the Deputy's constituency and in other constituencies. The Deputy may be aware that I met some members of his group. I have not had a Ministry directly relevant to the issue but at the MacGill Summer School two summers ago, I sat down with some of the group's councillors and we had a very good discussion. It really brought home to be the trauma the Deputy and his people are experiencing due to that.
I am pleased to tell the Deputy that payments under the enhanced defective concrete block grant scheme constitute a grant for a specific purpose which has been put in place to support homeowners to remediate their dwellings, and we know how that works. That will not be classed as reckonable income for a SUSI application. Effectively, it is disregarded and will not be taken into consideration in assessing. That is good news and very positive. There is a means test in the system for all. Other things are considered as part of that but in the Deputy's particular case, the defective blocks scheme remediation payments will not be taken into account as income.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29