Grant Payments
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-16
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Ollie Crowe (FF), Industrial and Commercial Panel

I thank the Minister of State for his detailed response. As I noted, we all understand that there must be precautions in place to ensure the system is not open to abuse. At the same time, there is huge frustration among the self-employed in particular. Families have told me how about difficult it is to access the support they are currently fully entitled to. I welcome the Minister of State's announcement that it will be updated, and an online digital system is going to be put in place. To that extent, some families have previously given up because it seemed to be never ending. With some closer co-operation between Departments, this should be something we can make quick progress on. If we could do that, it would make an immediate and significant difference to hundreds of families across the country, particularly in Galway city and Galway West. I would be grateful if the Minister of State would raise this with the Minister, Deputy Lawless, and request that his Department examine the issue in the short term if possible. I appreciate that applications for the 2027 academic year are already open so it may not be possible to make progress for this year. However, in my view it should be something we can fully resolve when applications open for 2028. I welcome the Minister of State's response.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-16