Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 56: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 41 of 26 October 2011, the reason County Donegal Vocational Education Committee use mapping services to calculate distances using back roads when there is clearly no bus route available to students; his views that this is justifiable and the legislation that outlines these measures. [38328/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The guidance given to local authorities and VECs in relation to the application of the distance criterion for student grants is that the shortest, most direct route to the institution attended is measured. The implementation of this guidance is a matter for individual grant awarding authorities, which will be best positioned to interpret its application in the context of local circumstances.

Article 26 (3) (a) and (b) Student Grant Scheme 2011 (S.I. No. 305 of 2011) sets out the qualifying distance criterion for the non-adjacent rate of student grant and also empowers the grant awarding authority to determine the rate of grant applicable to individual eligible students in this regard.