A mere 40% of applicants given a decision on grants

ONE of the country's busiest college grant-awarding bodies has still not finalised applications from more than half the students seeking financial support. Cork County Council has received about 1,700 applications for the current academic year which started in October, but only 680, or 40% of all applicants, have been issued with a decision.

The maintenance grants funded by the Department of Education are worth between €345 and €6,690 to almost 60,000 third-level students, depending on their household incomes, and will cost taxpayers €263 million this year.

Cork County Council said that 263 - nearly one-in-six - of the 1,679 applications it received for this academic year, came after the closing date of August 29.

Of the 1,119 first-time applicants, 475 have so far received a decision from the council, which is just half of those who applied before that deadline. More than 400 of all first-time applicants were written to by the council seeking further information or requesting documents not included with the application.

The council has received 560 applications from people who had received or applied for a grant in previous years, and only 205 of those have received a decision, with further information having been sought from 218 applicants.

A council spokesperson said applications are dealt with on a rotational basis and the initial stage is clarifying whether the application is complete or if further documentation is required.

"Decisions are then made in the order in which applications or information is received and priority is given to completed applications received before the closing date. On average, a formal decision is issued to all applicants within six weeks of receiving a complete response to an additional information request," she said.

The Student Support Bill under which the Government plans to give responsibility for the operation of all grants to city and county Vocational Education Committees (VECs), was published in February, but has not moved to committee stage in the Oireachtas since last being debated in the Dáil last April.

VECs process about two-thirds of applications, but the focus of the legislation is to put statutory timeframes on cases being decided and to set up an appeals mechanism for students.

However, it is almost certain because of the delayed passing of the bill, that the reforms will not be ready as promised for students applying for grants next summer, leaving thousands of students facing further delays from councils and VECs again next year.

The legislation was first promised in the 2002 Programme for Government, but delays in deciding who should handle applications were among the factors which have prevented the reforms. The Union of Students in Ireland argued grants should be processed by the Department of Social and Family Affairs, with its record and structures for means-tested applications.