Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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59. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he is satisfied with the current system for assessing student grant requests in place by SUSI; if his attention has been drawn to the number of overpayments which have been made by SUSI since its inception; the impact the overpayments may have on student welfare; if his Department has engaged with SUSI with regard to overpayments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45038/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The establishment of SUSI, within City of Dublin ETB (CDETB) as a single national awarding authority for student grants, represented a very significant positive development in the transformation of government service delivery in relation to supporting students in further and higher education.

Although there were operational challenges arising from this change that impacted on students in its first year of operation, which have been widely acknowledged, SUSI has continued to make year on year improvements and innovations in its service to students and is now a high-functioning organisation as evidenced by its performance in meeting service targets set for it by my Department annually.

SUSI processes over 100,000 applications a year with circa 80,000 students subsequently qualifying for grant support. Last year the Department of Education and Skills, through SUSI, provided over €380 million in grants to students.

To ensure that we have a level of assurance and appropriate governance structures required for an operation of this size and complexity, my Department has put in place a detailed Management Framework Agreement (MFA) with CDETB. This MFA includes, metrics to measure the performance of SUSI in terms of the system availability, the application process, customer service and overpayments.

SUSI operates a comprehensive set of processes and controls to manage the assessment process and to minimise the risk of incorrectly awarding grants. However, the nature of the assessment process undertaken by SUSI means that there is a risk that some students may be awarded maintenance grants and/or fee grants for which they are not eligible.

Where overpayments do occur, SUSI treats the overpayment as a debt to the Exchequer and seeks to ensure that all such payments are recovered from the student. This approach is consistent with the general policy and principle regarding the recovery of debt, as set out in the Student Support Act 2011.