Brendan Kenneally (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Question 576: To ask the Minister for Education and Science when a third level grant will be approved for a person (details supplied) in County Waterford who is in the second year of a course for the first time and for which there has already been written correspondence with herself; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3739/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Under the prescribed terms and conditions of my Department's student maintenance grant schemes, grant assistance may not be awarded in respect of a repeat period of study at the same level, irrespective of whether or not funding was previously awarded. The deciding authority may waive this provision in exceptional circumstances such as certified serious illness. In such instances decisions are made on a case by case basis. It should be emphasised, that this discretion would only be exercised where a candidate is repeating a period of study on the same course.

The candidate referred to by the Deputy submitted an appeal to my Department, the decision of Waterford VEC the awarding body in this case was upheld as maintenance grants may not be paid in respect of a second period of attendance at the same level for a course approved for the purposes of the schemes, irrespective of whether or not a grant was paid previously. Where funding for a repeat year of study is awarded in respect of a period of attendance at the same level on medical grounds, it would only be in relation to a repeat year on the same course. As the candidate in question is pursuing a different course, the decision of the awarding body was upheld in accordance with the terms and conditions of the grant schemes.

On 26th October 2007, a reply was issued to the candidate in question informing her of the outcome of her appeal.

You will appreciate that the terms of my Department's Schemes of Student Support must be applied impartially and it is not possible to make exceptions in individual cases, regardless of the circumstances.