Vol. 555 No. 2
223 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Education and Science the cost in today's terms of administering the third level fees scheme prior to the removal of such fees in the mid-1990s; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18196/02]
My Department understands that what the Deputy is seeking is the administrative cost of taking decisions, relating to third level fees, in cases where students, who were deemed eligible under one of the student support schemes operated by my Department, had their tuition fees paid under the relevant student support scheme.
The information sought by the Deputy is not available within my Department. In any event, it would be extremely difficult to differentiate the cost of processing decisions on tuition fees from related decisions on maintenance grant entitlement, taken by the 33 local authorities and 33 vocational education committees.
