EDUCATION MINISTER DISMISSES KITT'S CRITICISM OF THIRD LEVEL GRANTS

Date Published: 15-Mar-2012

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has dismissed suggestions that changes to the means test for student grants amounts to an attack on rural Ireland.

It follows mounting criticism from TDs including Galway East's Michael Kitt who says the future inclusion of farm assets in the means test shows an "anti-rural" agenda by government.

Ruairi Quinn has been responding to criticism of a new Capital Asset Test in the Dail where concerns have also been raised by Deputy Kitt's Fianna Fail colleague Timmy Dooley.

He argues that means testing should be concentrated on actual income, rather than the value of assets.

But Minister Quinn accused the Fianna Fail TD of scaremongering.