Mr. John Conroy:

Since January, we have had an ongoing issue across approximately 750 applications. Many of these cases have been referred to us by Members of the Oireachtas, including members of this committee, as well as by the applicants themselves. We have two areas of difficulty, the first of which is proof of estrangement. I might as well bring up the other issue - independent living - as part of this process. The student grants scheme and, more importantly, the statutory instrument that supports it, do not leave SUSI with much room in how we interpret estrangement or independent living. As part of our process of submitting an end-of-year return to the Department, when it is reviewing the scheme for next year, we will be lobbying for those two areas to be revisited. We have encountered many cases of applicants in their late teens who are estranged from their families, where every other form of evidence available to us suggests there is a need. We cannot take such cases across the line because the statutory instrument requires us to have specific types of evidence. The 118 cases mentioned by Ms Stewart comprise the final tranche of cases we are trying to bring to the award stage. I assure the committee that each of them must be considered by hand. Unfortunately, we do not have the latitude under the scheme to make an arbitrary decision. As I said earlier, we want to make improvements in this area. We will seek the support of the Department in this regard.

I do not propose to get into any specific cases of estrangement. At least two members of the committee are familiar with cases that are outstanding. Other cases relate to claims of independent living. As the committee knows, one has to be over the age of 23 before one can fall into the independent living category. We have dealt with a number of applicants who are renting the "extra bedroom" in a private house, but whose landlord is not registered with the Private Residential Tenancies Board. They do not have bank statements being sent to them at that address. They do not have television licences in their own name at that address. Large numbers of people do not seem to be in a position to give us the level of evidence associated with the many documents we accept. In many cases, rather than simply telling people their applications have been refused, we have attempted to go back to them. With the help of Members of the Oireachtas, in some cases, we have tried to get the individuals in question to identify a document somewhere - even a car insurance statement - that would serve as the necessary proof. We have taken a great deal of flak over the last six months regarding what has happened in these two areas, and we will continue to take some flak. All SUSI can do is encourage the Department to revisit these areas when next year's scheme is being drawn up.