Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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542. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will examine a query relating to a Springboard course for a person (details supplied) in County Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3995/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Higher Education Authority (HEA) manages the Springboard+ initiative on behalf of this Department. From the details supplied, the HEA's records indicate that the applicant applied as an unemployed applicant to a 1-year, full-time, ICT Skills Conversion course in National College of Ireland (NCI).

As per eligibility criteria, unemployed applicants need to have been on a qualifying Department of Social Protection (DSP) payment for 9 out of the last 12 months to be eligible for a 1-year ICT Skills Conversion course. It is the course provider's responsibility to ensure that applicants provide documentary evidence of their eligibility to undertake a Springboard+ course.

For part-time Springboard+ courses, there is no requirement to be in receipt of a payment for a particular period of time prior to the start of a course. However, for 1 year ICT Skills Conversion courses, applicants will need to satisfy additional Department of Social Protection (DSP) eligibility criteria that they have been in receipt of an eligible DSP for at least 9 of the previous 12 months. For those who have transferred to another payment from the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP), time spent on PUP will satisfy this condition.

The HEA contacted the course provider to seek further clarification and they have detailed the below points:

- The course commenced on Monday 23 January.

- The applicant was informed by NCI on the 19 January that they were ineligible as they were not in receipt of a qualifying DSP payment for the timeframe required and the applicant’s application was subsequently cancelled on the Application Management System.

- The applicant was not a fully registered student at any point, which would mean they would not have been able to access any NCI applications to attend course lectures.

Please note, for part-time Springboard+ courses, there is no requirement to be in receipt of a payment for a particular period of time prior to the start of a course, full lists of courses are available on springboardcourses.ie/.