Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 13 Mar 1996

Vol. 463 No. 1

Written Answers. - Education Hardship Fund.

Micheál Martin

Ceist:

94 Mr. Martin asked the Minister for Education the manner in which the £200,000 hardship fund created in 1994 was distributed to the various colleges; the amount each college received; and the amount of students who benefited from the use of these funds. [5872/96]

Minister for Education (Ms Bhreathnach)

Of this fund £120,000 was allocated to third level institutions for the purposes of a discretionary fund to assist students undergoing financial hardship while in college. Based on total undergraduate enrolments for the 1993-94 academic year this portion of the fund was distributed as follows:

	£
HEA Institutions	67,000
Dublin Institute of Technology	15,500
Athlone regional technical college	3,400
Carlow regional technical college	3,250
Cork regional technical college	5,450
Dundalk regional technical college	3,100
Galway regional technical college	4,320
Letterkenny regional technical college	2,400
Waterford regional technical college	5,100
Sligo regional technical college	2,860
Tralee regional technical college	2,500
Limerick regional technical college	3,200
Tallaght regional technical college	1,920
Total	120,000

The figure of £67,000 was allocated by the Higher Education Authority among the institutions under its aegis. Individual institutions administer their own hardship funds and my Department would not have details of the number of students assisted.

The remaining £80,000 of the fund was centrally administered by the Department to assist third level students with disabilities. It was allocated on the basis of individual applications submitted through the third level institutions which were referred to a special group which I appointed for the purpose. Most of the allocations made through the institutions were in respect of individual students with the remainder in respect of allocations for shared facilities for groups of disabled students; the number of individual disabled students who benefited from the fund was £42. The distribution of the £80,000 by institution was as follows:

	£
RTC Carlow	5,320
UCG	1,400
St. Patrick's College, Maynooth	895
RTC Cork	1,030
RTC Galway	500
RTC Sligo	250
Mary Immaculate College	500
National College of Art & Design	3,900
RTC Athlone	4,000
RTC Waterford	4,500
University of Limerick	875
Dublin City University	800
Trinity College, Dublin	4,080
UCD	12,250
UCC	36,000
RTC Tralee	3,700
	80,000