Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, who is travelling to Brussels on Government business. I thank the Deputies for raising this important matter. A new, fully centralised student grant application system was launched on 11 June and is being operated by a central grant awarding authority, the Student Universal Support Ireland, which is known by the wonderful acronym SUSI and which has been established as a unit of the city of Dublin VEC. Until last year, students applied to 66 local authorities and VECs for grant assistance. This is the first time the centralised approach has been taken in the history of the State. Deputies are aware of the difficulties with which these bodies had been dealing with the major increase in numbers applying for student grants in recent years. The new facility automates and replaces the previous manual application arrangements with a centralised online system application for all new grant applications nationwide from this academic year onwards. The system has been designed in such a way as to guide students interactively through the application process. Under the old system, the majority of third level students were paid by cheque, a costly and inefficient way of making payments. Under SUSI, students will be paid monthly directly into their bank accounts. This leads to all SUSI grant applicants in an institution receiving payments in the same way, by electronic funds transfer.

SUSI has received in excess of 66,000 completed applications for student grants this year. Some 18,000 applications are complete, including 9,000 applications that have been refused and 9,000 applications that have been awarded or awarded pending submission of final course details by the student. In addition, SUSI is awaiting documentation from students for 21,000 applications. The remaining 27,000 applications are on hand for processing. SUSI is aiming to award and pay all successful applicants before the end of December, which represents a significant improvement on the previous system in many parts of the country. To date, some 6,528 new students have been awarded maintenance or fees only grants. A maintenance grant has been awarded to 2,190 students, and some 3,729 students are awaiting a maintenance payment. The payment of the student grant is contingent on the supply of bank account details by the student, together with confirmation of registration from the institution attended. Payments for new students commenced on 19 October, and SUSI will continue to run weekly payments during November to ensure students receive their first payments as soon as possible. It is inevitable that a late rush of applications will cause delays in a student grant processing system and the subsequent payment of student grants. My Department is continuing to monitor the situation in close consultation with SUSI, which is working with the Union of Students in Ireland to encourage students to submit outstanding documentation. SUSI is also constantly seeking to improve the information available online and from its helpdesk, e-mail and telephone services.

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