Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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206. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she has raised the issue of the delay in issuing 2015 student grant approvals with Student Universal Support Ireland; if she plans impressing upon it the need for grant approvals to be issued in good time, as students are struggling financially; the number of students still awaiting final approval of their grants; the length of time it is taking to assess applications once all supporting documentation, as requested, has been submitted; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38867/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The performance of SUSI is assessed on an on-going basis in accordance with the terms of the Management Framework Agreement concluded between the Department and the CDETB in respect of SUSI a unit of CDETB.

I am informed by SUSI that it has received almost 107,000 student grant applications to date for the 2015/16 academic year. Of these SUSI has awarded student grant funding to 63,000 students to date. Continuous improvements made by SUSI for the 2015/16 academic year has seen a 19% increase, from 52,000 awards at the same time last year.

SUSI paid students in September this year, the first time that maintenance grant payments have been made before October and 57,800 students have been paid to date. The remaining students who have already been awarded grants and are still to be paid will receive their grants as soon as their colleges confirm that they are registered and attending, and when they have submitted their bank details through their online SUSI accounts. In addition to the published monthly payment dates, payments are being made by SUSI on a weekly basis until Christmas to ensure that as many students as possible are paid as soon as such confirmation is received.

The length of time it is taking SUSI to assess applications once all supporting documentation requested has been submitted, can vary based on the complexity of applications and the date of submission of the documentation. I understand that SUSI has introduced metrics to student's SUSI online application trackers. Students who submit all supporting documentation and are awaiting a final assessment can see where there are in the queue by accessing their online trackers.

As stated above, SUSI has received almost 107,000 applications for the 2015/16 academic year to date (15,000 of which were received after the priority processing deadline) and expects to award approximately 82,000 grants for this academic year. Over 77,000 (72%) of these applications have been completed – 63,000 awarded and 14,000 refused/cancelled. This is significant progress on 2014/15 which in itself was an extremely successful year for SUSI.

SUSI has met and exceeded the applications processed to completion and payments targets for end October as set in the Management Framework Agreement between CDETB and the Department.