John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for arriving late to the meeting and thank the Chairman for allowing me to contribute even though I am not a member of the committee. I raised this issue in the Dáil last month and I am glad to see that some of the issues have been addressed. I understand the appeals system has been outsourced to somebody in Cork. How many records have been lost? When I contacted SUSI in regard to one student who had appealed, there was no record of his appeal. The student had proof of postage but he had to resend his details.

Are late applications a major problem? Some students may not have been offered courses until the beginning of September, which means their applications will be arriving late. Can anything be done to help SUSI to deliver this service? Finally, what will it do differently next year?