Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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6. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of applicants from Mayo who had their SUSI application refused in the 2024 academic year. [25803/25]

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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11. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of SUSI applicants from Mayo who had their SUSI revoked in the middle of the academic year. [25802/25]

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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33. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of applicants from Mayo who had their SUSI application approved in the 2024 academic year. [25804/25]

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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I thank the Minister and Minister of State for attending to discuss these important matters. The questions concern SUSI applications for County Mayo, in particular the number and the percentage of the refusal rate, the revoked applications and the successful applications, and how this compares with the national situation.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 6, 11 and 33 together.

As the House will be aware, the main support available to assist students with the cost of attending higher education is the student grant scheme. Under the scheme, grant assistance is awarded to eligible students attending an approved course in an approved institution who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means. In other words, there is a set of rules around the scheme, those rules govern the eligibility for it and, in turn, the students progress. That continues to be applied.

There is also a part-time scheme for specified undergraduate courses that is now available. It commenced for the first time in September 2024 and I recently expanded it to more courses. It provides fee support to eligible part-time students attending specified publicly funded undergraduate courses leading to a major award. This includes specified in-person courses and blended or hybrid courses, and its aim is to provide additional flexibility in respect of course provision to students who may be socioeconomically disadvantaged. Many students find the part-time option far more possible because they are able to continue to work and look after other commitments. The part-time course is a very attractive option for many people for that reason and it is only right that it should be supported through this fees scheme. That was not previously the case but it is now. As I said, I have recently expanded the provision and I will continue to examine the scheme because there may be other courses that fall outside it. I intend to continue to review it to see whether we can expand it to the maximum possible number of students.

I turn now to the specific questions on the Mayo cohort. As of 15 May 2025, for the academic year 2024-25, some 2,655 applicants from Mayo were awarded a grant by SUSI for either a full-time or part-time course; 415 applicants from Mayo were refused a grant by SUSI for either a full-time or part-time course; and 58 applicants from Mayo had their grant revoked for either a full-time or part-time course. Those are the figures as of 15 May, a couple of days ago, and they may change as we come to the end of the academic year because, over the course of an academic year, there can be changes with individual students for different reasons. I do not expect that they will be consequential in terms of the numbers but there may be updates before the end of the academic year.

It is fair to say that the vast majority of students who applied did receive funding. A small number were refused because they were ineligible and were not able to progress their applications, and a much smaller number again, 58, had those grants revoked. I hope that is of interest and assistance to the Deputy. Those are the figures for County Mayo.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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I would like to raise some concerns, in particular regarding the revoked applications. In some instances, the money is never actually seen by the applicant and is directly linked to the university. I am aware of one case where the university failed to notify SUSI that the student had left the course and, as a result, the student was penalised the following year – essentially, the student was abandoned in that situation. Of course, we need to have a rules-based system and that is very important. However, this is particularly relevant in the post-Covid landscape, given students lost so much time in their second level education, and that window of opportunity was lost. As a result, students who may not have had the opportunity for career guidance during this time have pursued courses that perhaps they would not have pursued in the normal circumstance of having had career guidance. As a result of choosing a course, they find themselves potentially changing course or changing pathway, and they are penalised for doing so. In many ways, we should be encouraging people to pursue their dreams. Changing a course is not in itself a problem and, in fact, it should sometimes be encouraged. I know people who get to second or third year in college, realise that this career path is not for them and find themselves in a situation where they continue along the pathway because of the financial penalties they would incur if they were to change. That needs to be looked at. Of course, we need a rules-based system, but we need flexibility and perhaps an extension of the timeframe that SUSI currently stipulates.

Another point concerns the distance from college in the context of the adjacent or non-adjacent grant rate. I am aware of one case where SUSI failed an applicant for being 29.65 km away from ATU in Castlebar when Google Maps suggests the person is 31 km away. It is very unfortunate. The system should recognise this, particularly in light of how expensive it is to run a car and the fact that public transport in many parts of Mayo is not a viable option for students. Apart from the cost of running a car, the Government is increasing carbon tax and the cost of insurance is rising.

This should be recognised.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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There were a couple of options raised and I will try to come back to the Deputy on each of them.

Career guidance and counselling is something I tend to very much support and I am keen to increase the provision of it. As we know, it is extremely difficult for students, typically at a young age, to make choices that may have implications for their entire life journey after that. There is a bit of a pressure point around how to make that decision at the right time very quickly. However, I intend to support that area in terms of further support for career guidance and for counselling for the burgeoning schools.

Yesterday, the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, and I attended the Mount Lucas national construction skills hub. We saw the launching of a new platform, Skillnet MMC Accelerate, which is a website that allows those with an interest in construction careers to consider a breathtaking range of options and follow through on that interest by clicking through different courses, different study options and different apprenticeships to see how they might play out. I credit the organisers and those involved in that platform. I would like to see those type of platforms applied to many other sectors across the board. This is an example of what can be done and what is being done already.

The Deputy spoke about students who may take on a course and find halfway through that it is not the right course for them. In the programme for Government, we have committed to examining second-chance applications. As with all these things, there is a balance because unlimited funding for continuing to change courses might be desirable from a societal point of view but economically unsustainable. There has to be some tipping point. I have some sympathy in this regard because I changed course. I studied maths originally, but I ended up studying law. I did it part-time, by night, while I was working in town. I came across to lectures every evening after work. Therefore, I have sympathy for people who end up pursuing second careers and different course options. It is a good thing to do. The day of the job for life is gone and people now end up pursuing many different paths through life and, indeed, change and retrain. Reskilling, upskilling and lifelong learning is a core objective of my Department to support. We are keen to continue to allow people have those opportunities at any stage in life to find their new path forward.

In terms of the individual cases, the Deputy mentioned two that I noted. The first was around a student who left - maybe dropped out - halfway through the year. Then he mentioned what sounds like a very unfortunate individual who checked Google Maps and found that the other calculations did not seem to accord. If the Deputy wants to bring those cases to my attention after the session or if he wants to write to me on them - I will not get into individual cases on the floor of the House and I do not have the details - I would be quite happy to look into them and see if we can progress anything in the background.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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I welcome the Minister's assistance on those cases. As the Minister quite rightly pointed out, people who make second-chance applications and move courses should be supported in a bigger way than is currently the case. The extension of the timeline should be looked at and the acceleration of more online courses, which will reduce the cost to the person, would be of assistance as well.

I also want to raise another case. A constituent of mine, who has two students in college, received a very modest gift as a result of losing their parent. It was a grandparent of the third level students. This was a very small will that was left. The parents used the gift, which was very modest, to part-pay off the mortgage on their property. This family was no better off in terms of their income and day-to-day spending and yet, because of this will, their children were completely struck off from a SUSI grant. The family had to take one of their children out of college. As the inheritance was so small, they will be less well-off than if they never got it in the first place. I know we need a rules-based system but we should look at the anomaly that arises when a modest inheritance is used, as in this case, to pay off the mortgage. This family was no better off. In fact, they are actually less well-off in terms of that. It needs to be looked at. I would greatly appreciate it if the Minister could consider this in his role in the months ahead.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I have listened to what the Deputy has said and I have taken note. He might want to follow up with me on that case as well. The first thing I would say, before I and my Department get involved, is that the student should consider appealing if they have not done so already. Indeed, I would advise any student who feels they have been wrongly denied a grant, or not had their correct level of grant funding applied, to access the appeals mechanism. I would refer any student who is dissatisfied to the relevant website, studentgrantappeals.ie, because there is a whole framework in place there. There is a 30-day window for such cases. I am not sure how far on this particular case is, but it might be of interest to the House in general to be aware of that facility. There is also a support webline, support@susi.ie. They have a phone number which can be accessed as well. There are a number of different ways in which SUSI will respond to individual cases. It may be appropriate for the Deputy's constituent who wishes to make a case with regard to mileage to consider an appeal as well. It is up to the individual student and family, but that is something could be looked at.

In terms of the inheritance, the Deputy stated that the amount was modest. I do not know what the figure is - we can look into it in due course - but there are several different disregards in the system, such as holiday income, bursaries and grants from other sources. A number of different disregards are included. It is quite a complex system in terms of how the grants are considered, whether a student is eligible, what other income is there and what other payments they may be in receipt of. I do not know whether the particular case the Deputy mentions would satisfy one of those disregards. It may do; it may not. Certainly, it would with luck. However, every effort is made to ensure that when a student receives financial support towards their educational journey from other sources with the intention of helping them to achieve an educational goal, it is not punitive in terms of their subsequent support. We would not want to have one robbing Peter to pay Paul; they should be combined.

If the Deputy wants to advise his constituent in the first instance to consider appealing if they have not already, he should look at the details of it. Then if the Deputy wants to engage with me on that particular case as well, I would be happy to look into it.

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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We will move on to Question No. 8.