COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Monday, September 10, 2012
QUESTION NO.18
QUESTION: Councillor D. Looney
To ask the Manager to report on the processing of Higher Education Grants by this Council in light of the changes introduced by the Student Support Act 2011, including in the report details on the numbers of applications being renewed for the upcoming academic year, comparisons with relevant previous data and changes in staffing and other resources; and to make a statement on the matter?
REPLY:
Student Support Act 2011
Student Support Act 2011 was signed into law on 2nd February 2011.
This legislation allowed for a fundamental reform of the student grants system: instead of four student grant schemes there is now only one and a single grant awarding authority was established (Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) and is operational replacing the existing 66 grant awarding bodies (local authorities and VECs) for all new applications from 2012/13. The existing awarding bodies will continue to process applications for grant renewals and will ultimately cease to provide this service in the course of three years.
2011/2012
South Dublin County Council received a total of 1923 applications for Higher Education Grants in the 2011/2012 academic year. The breakdown was as follows:
| New | Renewals | Forwarded to other LA | Ineligible |
| 858 | 1065 | 622 | 381 |
ยท A total of 1304 students were awarded a Grant
The following table shows a comparison between Renewal Students for academic year 2011/12 and 2012/13 :
Academic Year
No. of Renewals (issued letters to renew grant)
Renewal Applications Received at 31/08/12
Grant Approved
Awaiting Further Info
2011/12
1065
559
146
64
2012/13
891
735
140
84
Budgetary 2011 Changes: Budget 2011 made changes to the criteria to determine eligibility for the non-adjacent rate i.e. The qualifying distance (distanced from the higher education institution) was changed from 24 kilometres to 45 kilometres, and the automatic entitlement of mature students was removed.
| End of Academic Year | Received Non-adjacent Rate of Grant |
| 2010/11 | 345 |
| 2011/12 | 82 |
A workforce planning exercise has recently commenced in the Corporate Services Department with a view to revising the allocation of resources to all areas in conjunction with the preparation of budget proposals for the coming year.