John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 4: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills if the income of a person who has transferred from one long-term social welfare payment, for example, lone parent allowance to another long-term payment of jobseeker's allowance and has been in receipt of both for a continuous period as required for the third level special top up grant can be refused a top up grant as a result of the transfer of payment; the guidelines, if any, the Department have issued to the awarding authority of the grant; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39473/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Grant Awarding authorities have been advised that to qualify for the Special Rate of maintenance grant, an applicant must qualify for the ordinary maintenance grant in respect of the 2010/11 academic year. In addition, total reckonable income must not exceed a specified amount, which is €22,703 in the 2009 tax year. In addition, on the operative date, which is 31st December 2009 for the 2010/11 academic year, the reckonable income must include one of the eligible long-term Social Welfare payments prescribed under the scheme.

Where a person goes directly from one eligible social welfare payment to another, without a break in payment, the continuous period spent on both eligible payments is taken into consideration when assessing eligibility for the Special Rate of grant.

The decision on eligibility for a student grant is a matter, in the first instance, for the relevant grant awarding authority i.e. the applicant's local authority or VEC.

Where a grant application is refused, the reason for the refusal is given by the grant awarding authority.

An applicant may appeal the decision to the relevant local authority or VEC.

Where the grant awarding authority decides to reject the appeal, the applicant may appeal this decision to my Department by submitting an appeal form clearly outlining the grounds for the appeal.