Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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713. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the average waiting time for payment of third level maintenance grants; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6982/16]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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It is not possible to provide reliable average waiting times for the payment of maintenance grants. Awards are processed quickly through the system but are ultimately dependent on the complexity of each individual application. On the award of a maintenance grant, students are put into payment as soon as their colleges confirm that they are registered and attending the approved course and as soon as the student submits his/her bank details through the online SUSI account.

There is a Management Framework Agreement in place between my Department and CDETB which sets out key performance metrics for SUSI. SUSI has exceeded all of the metrics set for processing payments in the current academic year. For example, the target for 31 December 2015 for new awards was 85% whereas the outcome was 86%.