Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 15 Feb 1990

Vol. 395 No. 8

Written Answers. - Education Grant.

Bernard J. Durkan

Question:

88 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Education if her attention has been drawn to the fact that a person (details supplied) in County Kildare had her higher education grant reduced retrospectively by Kildare County Council acting on behalf of her Department on the basis that the college was within a 15 mile radius of her home and notwithstanding the fact that lectures for her course take place at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin 9, which is outside the 15 mile radius; if she accepts the serious injustice done to the person concerned; if she will reverse this decision without delay and ensure payment of a grant; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for Education (Mrs. O'Rourke)

The annual value of a grant under the higher education grants scheme in the case of one eligible candidate whose normal family residence is within 15 miles of the university or other institution of higher education at which he/she is attending or who could reasonably be expected, in the light of distance and local public transport services, to travel daily between his/her normal family residence and such university or other institution of higher education is lecture fee and the lower non-adjacent rate of maintenance. It is understood from Kildare County Council, the body statutorily entrusted with the administration of the scheme in this candidate's area, that the distance between her normal family residence and the institution of higher education at which she is a registered student — i.e. Royal College of Surgeons, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2 — is 12 miles. Accordingly, grant is being paid in the present academic year at the non-adjacent rate. My Department have indicated to the local authority that retrospective adjustment to last year's grant payment would be inappropriate.