Still no answer on how SUSI grant distances are measured

Minister for Education Joe McHugh has still not answered how distances are measured for the SUSI college grant.

Last week the paper ran a front page story 'Anger over latest SUSI college grant debacle' where student, Sarah Poole, who is attending Cavan Institute and lives in the Mohill area, has been refused a Non-adjacent Maintenance Grant despite the fact she lives in the same house as a sibling who was, only a year previously, was awarded the grant to attend the same institution.
Under the grant criteria, students must live more than 45km from their place of education.

Sarah's older sister Hannah was awarded the grant in 2016 following an appeal. However Sarah has been refused the grant to attend the same institution.
SUSI, using Google Map measures and an Eircode for Cavan Institute, calculated the distance between Sarah's home and the Institute as being 43.7km, under the 45km requirement.

Sarah is at stage two of an appeal to SUSI showing that, depending on whether you used Eircodes or addresses, four measurements are produced ranging from 45.6km to 54.2km.

Deputy Marc MacSharry last week asked the Minister his views on the accuracy of using an application and Eircodes as the measurement benchmark for assessing eligibility for the non-adjacent rate of student maintenance grant in which the practical evidence of a clocked drive of the distance proves that the measurements by the application using Eircodes to be inaccurate.
Minister McHugh stated, “The adjacent rates of maintenance grant is payable in the case of students whose normal residence is 45km or less from the approved institution which he or she is attending, where the distance is measured as the shortest non-tolled direct route from the student’s residence to the institution. The non-adjacent rate of maintenance grant is payable in all other cases.

He spoke about last year's unsuccessful appeal but did not note her stage two appeal to this year's decision.
“On a general point, the student grant scheme is published annually and the terms of each scheme, including enhancements which improve the efficiency of the scheme in terms of accuracy and reduced processing times, can change over time.
“While some students who were assessed under older schemes may have benefitted from the application of rules that applied at a particular point in time, this should not been seen as an indicator that similar outcomes will be arrived at for students assessed under more recent schemes.”

More students have also queried and appealed their grant refusal.
Fiann Fáil Deputy Marc MacSharry said “This is an example of an absence of common sense. He believes Ireland's Ordnance Survey map measurements should be the criteria used for gauging distance.

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