Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 583: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the most recent information available on the socio-economic background of recipients of third level grants; if this information will be supplied in tabular form according to socio-economic group; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5598/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Limited indicative data on the socio-economic background of grantholders have been collected in the past on the higher education grants scheme only. My Department's student support unit is in the process of collating information on students who were awarded grants under the higher education grants scheme for the academic year 2004-05 from the returns which have been submitted to date by the local authorities.

Unfortunately, there are a number of returns outstanding for 2002-03 and 2003-04 which the Department is pursuing with the local authorities and the County and City Managers' Association. Despite this and to avoid any further delay, we are arranging to have the available data provided for the Deputy directly. It is our intention that this information will issue to the Deputy in the coming days in respect of 2002-03 and 2003-04. These indicative data are subject to considerable qualification of their reliability due to, inter alia, the level of undeclared status among the returns from the local authorities.

Following consultations with the Irish Vocational Education Association, new arrangements were introduced in 2005 to compile a more comprehensive statistical break-down of grantholders under the schemes administered by the VECs. This complements arrangements in place in respect of the higher education grants scheme. When the complete returns for the academic years 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05 are available, the information will be made available to the Deputy.