Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 October 2012
69. Deputy Sandra McLellan asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of higher education grants that have been paid to people to date this year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46672/12]
View answerAs the Deputy may be aware, all new applications for the 2012/13 academic year are being processed and paid by SUSI, the new centralised grant awarding authority. Continuing students who are renewing their grant for attendance on an existing course with their existing awarding authority, which will be either a local authority or a VEC, will continue to have their applications processed and their student grants paid by the relevant grant awarding authority.
SUSI paid 663 students on the 19th October, 2012 and the 66 grant awarding authorities as at the 5th October 2012 had paid 6,490 renewal students. This data has been supplied to my Department by the grant awarding authorities. The migration of the new applications to SUSI has enabled the awarding authorities under the old system to deal with the renewals on a more efficient basis - these are generally more straightforward and require significantly less documentary evidence.
As part of the overall improvement in service, all new student grants approved for this academic year will be paid by electronic funds transfer on a monthly basis directly to students' bank accounts, rather than by cheque to the relevant college. Those awarded a grant must supply bank account details and confirmation of registration must be received from the institution in order for the first instalment to be paid. Payments to students have commenced and will continue on a weekly rolling basis for the coming period as grants are approved and bank details are supplied online by the student.
