Local Authority Funding

Thursday, 12 July 2018

Questions (165)

Fergus O'Dowd

Question:

165. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Education and Skills the applications submitted for funding and projects from Meath and Louth County Councils in 2016, 2017 and to date in 2018 for projects decided upon or in progress in tabular form. [32004/18]

View answer

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

The information sought by the Deputy is being compiled by my Department and will be forwarded to the Deputy shortly.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 42.

I refer to Parliamentary Question No. 165 of 11th July 2018 in which you asked me provide details of the applications submitted for funding and projects from Meath and Louth County Councils in 2016, 2017 and to date in 2018 for projects decided upon or in progress.

In my reply, I had stated that the information sought is being compiled but would be forwarded to you shortly. I am now in a position to provide the information, as follows.

The only applications which are relevant to your query pertain to the student grant scheme. The student grant scheme is administered by Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI). Prior to SUSI, students attending third level who qualified for support were funded by their local authorities. Existing students who were funded this way at the time SUSI was set up remained with the local authorities. The local authorities continue to pay the maintenance and fees on behalf of these students, and apply to the Department of Education and Skills to have these funds repaid to them on a reconciliation form.

The following table outlines the requests by each County Council for 2016 and 2017. No requests have been made to date in 2018.

Funding Type	County Council	Year	Applications submitted	Amount of Funding
Higher Education Grants - Student Grant Scheme	Meath County Council	2016	2 Reconciliation forms submitted	€60,998
Higher Education Grants - Student Grant Scheme	Louth County Council	2016	2 Reconciliation forms submitted	€66,202
Higher Education Grants - Student Grant Scheme	Louth County Council	2017	2 Reconciliation forms submitted	€21,966