Brendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Stewart and her team for their presentation. We expected to receive a confident report and it would have been a cause for concern if our guests had not taken an upbeat approach. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, however. I hope representatives of SUSI will not be required to come before us to explain poor performance at the end of the year. The organisation has the benefit of the Accenture report, which noted inadequate staff resources, a lack of experience and insufficient clarity in respect of information provided to applicants. I hope SUSI has gained experience and resolved the lack of clarity. Is Ms Stewart satisfied that all the pieces are in place? This is key to the joint committee's having confidence in the ability of SUSI to perform its task properly. If Ms Stewart is not satisfied with the resources available to her or believes further changes will be required, we should be concerned.

Improvements in communications and information sharing are positive developments which indicate that matters will improve. What targets or measurements of success are being applied to the team in SUSI?

I ask Ms Stewart to explain how the appeals process works. She indicated that the number of successful appeals amounted to 6% of the total number of applicants. What percentage of appeals were refused? I understand 69,000 grant applications were made last year. How many applications are expected for the forthcoming academic year?