Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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117. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of students currently waiting for a decision on grant applications made to the Student Universal Support Ireland; if the measures his Department will be taking to ensure that long delays experienced by students in receiving a decision on their applications will be avoided in the coming academic year 2013/14; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25461/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I understand from Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) that, as at close of business on 26th May 2013, 547 applications are currently with SUSI for processing, most of which are awaiting final elements of documentation from students and are expected to be closed out in the coming week.

I am informed by Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) that, in preparation for the 2013/14 academic year, both the on-line application and the assessment process are being further developed to enhance their effectiveness and efficiency and to respond to the experiences from year one. For applicants going to or returning to college for the 2013/14 academic year, a number of new initiatives will make their application to SUSI more efficient this year. The initiatives include direct information sharing between SUSI and Government bodies and agencies including the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Social Protection, the General Register Office (GRO) and the Central Applications Office (CAO). These links should reduce significantly the number of documents required from applicants themselves. In addition to these developments, core staff are now on site. These trained and experience staff are cross functional and a number of these staff are now fully proficient in specialist areas such as analysis of income from self-employment, nationality issues and appeals. There is a revised document management process in place and also a new tracking system is currently being developed which will allow students to follow the progress of their application on-line and thereby reduce the requirement for students to contact the SUSI helpdesk for updates on the status of their applications.