Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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68. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to provide to an applicant a tracking service for all applications to his Department and agencies under the aegis of his Department from members of the public for such items as student grants, school building projects, licences and grants and other applications processed by his Department similar to the passport applications tracking scheme processed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12357/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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My Department has a number of internal tracking systems in place to process applications which are received in the Department. General and detailed information on a range of grants payable by the Department is available in the "Services" area of the Schools and Colleges section of the Department of Education and Skills website. Grants payable by my Department tend to be for a specific purpose and relevant only to specific groups or cohorts, and, accordingly, are not of general application as is the case with the passport office application system.

The deputy should note that the student grants system is administered by the City of Dublin Education and Training Board, which has in place a self-service online application tracker that allows applicants to identify the status of their application personally, by tracking their application online. For the deputy's information, my Department does not issue licences.

With regard to bodies under the aegis of my Department, the information sought is a matter for each agency and is not collated centrally. If the Deputy has an interest in a particular agency then officials in my Department will request the agency concerned to provide the relevant information insofar as it is possible.