Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 November 2012
138. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of staff currently allocated across the 66 vocational educational committees and local authorities to process the grant applications of existing third level students; the total number of grant applications lodged with the 66 bodies; and the percentage of these applications that are awaiting outstanding documentation from applicants. [51340/12]
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 paid by the relevant grant awarding authority. Continuing students on a level 6 or level 7 course in the Institutes of Technology will continue to be paid their grant directly by their institution.
The 66 grant awarding authorities as at 2 November, 2012 received 40,959 renewal applications. Some 11% of processed renewal applications are awaiting outstanding documentation. This data has been compiled from data supplied to my Department by the 66 grant awarding authorities.
The Deputy will appreciate that staffing resources and staffing costs associated with the processing of student grant applications are met by local authorities and vocational education committees within their overall resources and a breakdown of this data is not readily available.
