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Student Universal Support Ireland

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 February 2021

Wednesday, 3 February 2021

Questions (527)

Seán Sherlock

Question:

527. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the number of students that drew down the €250 SUSI rebate by county and educational institution. [5166/21]

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Written answers

In recognition of the challenges facing full time third level students, financial assistance will be provided in academic year 2020/21 to all students who avail of SUSI grants and to all EU full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students attending publicly funded Higher Education Institutions in the state. 

The scheme will ensure students;

- Who avail of the SUSI grant will receive €250 top-up in their grant;

- Students who do not avail of the grant but attend publicly funded Higher Education Institutions in the state can reduce by €250 any outstanding student contribution fee payments or receive a €250 credit note for their institution

- In a small number of cases, alternative arrangements will be made for the payment of the monies to students at the discretion of institutions.

The latter two options, as outlined above, are designed to ensure students who are not in receipt of SUSI benefit from the measure. It is also the intention that these address circumstances where students are in final year, have paid their contribution fee and may not be on campus.

A key administrative feature of the fund is that it is being implemented with the assistance of publicly funded institutions in the State under the remit of my Department. SUSI and Higher education institutions are in the process of communicating with students on the specific arrangements for disbursement of funds/credits. 

To date, over 72,000 students have received their €250 through their SUSI payment. There are still a small number of SUSI grant holders to be paid; these would include late applicants, persons in the appeals process and/or persons who have not provided bank details to facilitate payment. SUSI has a number of additional payment dates planned to capture the last few remaining students. The details of their payment plan can be found at the following link: https://susi.ie/covid-19-once-off-emergency-grant

Higher education providers have completed or are in the process of completing the allocation to students. Details of students numbers will be available upon completion of the process by the institutions. The Department has requested that institutions provide any outstanding credits in a timely manner before 28 February 2021. In a small number of cases where a credit cannot be applied a payment may be facilitated at the discretion of the institution.

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