Ms Kay Cullinane:

The appeals system we have in place is working with Cork VEC as a unit of SUSI. It was chosen because it has expertise in grants and we felt the person doing the appeals should have expertise and should be slightly removed from the assessors carrying out the initial assessment. When the students fill in the appeal form, which they download from the CDVEC's website, Cork VEC processes it. The students and our main office are then informed by Cork VEC about the outcome of the appeal.