Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The processing of student grants is carried out by local grant awarding authorities – VECs and local authorities. Officials in my Department contacted the relevant VEC, the awarding authority in this case, who confirmed supporting documentation required to process the candidate's grant application remains outstanding. They wrote to the candidate on 26th July 2011, 29th September 2011 and 2nd February 2012. In the letter of 2nd February, 2012 the candidate was advised that all outstanding documentation required to process the grant application must be submitted by 24th February, 2012 to avoid the application being closed. To date, the documentation has not been received by the VEC. If the applicant has been deemed ineligible for a student grant by the grant awarding authority that decision may be appealed to the awarding authority's appeals officer. Where the appeals officer decides to reject the appeal, the applicant may appeal this decision to my Department or the independent appeals board, as appropriate.