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

I welcome the Minister of State's clarification of some of the issues I raised, in particular the tracking system and the direct link with Revenue and the Department of Social Protection. In terms of the link with Revenue and the Department of Social Protection, will he clarify whether there is an issue of data protection and whether it will cause problems? Referring back to the problems of last year, have all the grants for the last academic year been paid as of now, even though it is 21 May? My information up to a couple of weeks ago was that there were still some outstanding.

How many appeals were in the system this year? My information is that some oral appeals took place. How many of those appeals were successful? I refer to both the written appeals and the oral appeals. It is hugely important that grants do not have to be paid out in March and April of next year. I would like the Minister of State to answer my questions regarding the last academic year.

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