Vol. 442 No. 3
201 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Education in relation to her announcement of a hardship fund for students in third level institutions, the persons who will administer this fund; the amount of money to be allocated to the fund; the way in which applications can be made; if any applications have been received to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
The Government has provided £200,000 in 1994 for the hardship fund.
The hardship fund will be administered with third level institutions for the benefit of individual students already attending college where assistance on a flexible basis is required because of exceptional unforeseen circumstances and where assistance under the general student support schemes is not available or is inadequate.
Information on the criteria relating to the operation of this fund and the organisational arrangements for its disbursement will be disseminated to students and their representatives with the assistance of the third level institutions at the beginning of the next academic year.
