Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 December 2004
352 Mr. Crawford asked the Minister for Education and Science the reason a person (details supplied) in County Monaghan cannot receive maintenance grant payment for the first three months of the PLC course they are pursuing; if they are entitled to pursue the PLC course at the same level as a second chance student after a break of five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33086/04]
View answerUnder the terms of my Department's maintenance grants scheme for students attending post-leaving certificate, PLC, courses, grants may not be paid in respect of a second period of attendance at the same level for a course approved for the purposes of the scheme, irrespective of whether a grant was paid previously. The vocational education committee has discretion to waive this provision in exceptional circumstances such as certified serious illness. However, where funding is awarded under the exceptional circumstances provision of the PLC scheme it would generally only be where a student is pursuing a second period of study on the same course. The student in question is undertaking a different PLC course from the one she commenced in 1998. There is no provision for second chance students as mentioned by the Deputy under the terms of the PLC scheme.
