Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 440: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason he is prepared to stand over the situation whereby students in County Kildare are not paid a third level grant for an Erasmus year whilst others in the same course and from different counties in the State such as Fingal, Mayo and Tipperary are paid the grant; and his views on whether the Central Applications Office booklets were deficient in respect of this course and that the Erasmus year is an integral part of the degree course. [20142/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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With regard to study abroad, clause 7.3 of the Higher Education Grant Scheme states : " Where grantholders as part of their approved course, are required to attend foreign university courses for a period of up to one year, a maintenance grant may continue to be paid where the period abroad does not affect the normal duration of the approved course".

The candidate referred to by the Deputy appealed Kildare County Council's decision not to award a Higher Education Grant for her Erasmus Year to my Department. The decision of the assessing authority in this case was upheld on appeal. Where the Erasmus Programme is an integral part of the approved course of study it is funded by my Department. Further examination of the status of the Erasmus component of the course which this candidate is pursuing is being undertaken and the candidate in question will be notified of the outcome of this examination. The higher education institutions in the State have delegated to CAO the task of processing centrally applications to their first-year undergraduate courses.