Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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2609.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will review the operation of a liaison service (details supplied) to ensure it operates in line with other departments and agencies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32066/24]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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SUSI’s dedicated Oireachtas Helpdesk gives public representatives direct access to SUSI for applicant queries. For SUSI to respond effectively to a query from a public representative on an individual application in a manner that is fully compliant with SUSI’s Data Protection Statement and that meets SUSI’s duties as a data controller, SUSI must be satisfied that all individuals concerned have consented to their personal information being released by SUSI to a third party.

Given in particular the multi-party nature of a grant application, SUSI as a data controller has obligations to students, parents and guardians especially where a query is made by one of those parties alone but, where responding to the query involves the disclosure or discussion of the data of the other parties.

Applicants can update their consent preferences quickly and easily online through their SUSI student portal. This is a fully online consent process whereby an applicant can give, withdraw and update their data sharing consents at any time.

When a query from a public representative is received and consent has not been given by the applicant, SUSI contacts the applicant directly to ensure they know how to update the consent in their online student portal. SUSI can view an update regarding consent within approximately 10 minutes of submission.

Records show that so far this year, queries received to the SUSI Oireachtas Helpdesk have been answered on average within one working day of consent being provided.