Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 December 2019
125. Deputy Pat Deering asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of reducing the non-adjacent SUSI grant distance from college by 1, 2, 5, 10 and 15 kilometres, respectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51056/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraSUSI does not collate data in the format request by the Deputy. Therefore, it is not possible to estimate cost the reducing the non-adjacent distance criterion from 1km to 2km, 10km and 15km.
Budget 2011 provided for a number of student grant measures which came into effect for the 2011/12 academic year, including the change in the assessment of the qualifying distance criterion for the non-adjacent rate of grant from 24 kilometres to 45 kilometres. The cost of reversing the change to the distance criteria for the student grant is estimated to be in the region of €26m. The above costing assumes that a change to the distance criterion would result in a similar percentage of students qualifying for the higher non-adjacent grant support, as existed pre Budget 2011.
