It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that their application for a student grant is submitted before the deadline. The closing date for online applications was 1st August 2013 and this was further extended by SUSI to 19 November 2013. The decision on whether to accept a late application after that date is a matter for the grant awarding authority concerned, in this case - SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland). Officials in my Department have confirmed with SUSI that late applications are accepted for the academic year 2013/14 where a student has had a change in circumstances as outlined in Article 32 of the Student Grant Scheme 2013 or where a course commences in 2014. A late application was not accepted in the case of the student referred to by the Deputy as it was confirmed that the course attended by the applicant did not start in 2014.