The sub who headlined this item in the Irish Times (15/3/2012) has either discovered a new Tax or is implying that taking assets into account in the award of student grants is equivalent to imposing a Tax.The text of the report does not mention the word Tax. Rather it describes an Assets Test that the Minister proposes to introduce in order to correct a bias in the award of student grants to farmers and the self-employed.
I suppose we are unlikely to get any explanation from the paper of record
.