Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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70. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount his Department allocated under the student assistance fund by institution in each of the years 2006 to 2016 to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15240/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Student Assistance Fund provides financial supports to students who are experiencing short-term or ongoing financial difficulties.

The Fund is administered locally within each higher education institution. Funds are provided on an annual basis to each institution by the Higher Education Authority.

The attached tables provide the level of funding provided through the Student Assistance Fund for the past ten years, and a breakdown of the allocation to each higher education for the past five years, for which final data are available.

One of the commitments in the new National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education, 2015-19, is to review the Student Assistance Fund. This review has recently been completed. It is my understanding that the review will be published shortly by the Higher Education Authority.

Table 1: Funding allocated to institutions under the TLA Funding programmes.