Can the Minister say why the plans which were initiated early this year or at the end of last year to implement the farm accounts system for the purpose of determining eligibility for higher education grants have not been implemented in this academic year?

A submission was made to the Department of Finance and we are awaiting the result of that.

The intention was that the farm accounts system would be implemented in time to process applications for this academic year.

As I have said, the order of the court as perfected was not forwarded until 7 September. The Department could not do anything until that came through. A submission was made to the Department of Finance. I am not in a position to say what was in the submission.

I am talking about a decision which was made eight or 12 months ago to implement the farm accounts system to assess eligibility for this year. This was prior to the court case being heard or a decision being made. Why was this not put in train in relation to applications for the present academic year?

The only ones that have been put in train are those which relate to the court decision. As I said, we are awaiting the result of that submission.

Will the Minister of State give an indication when this decision will be made by the Government? Further, will she give us the approximate number of students involved? She must be aware of the damage done to the educational prospects of many students in this kind of nebulous vaccum where they do not know if they are entitled to a grant and cannot proceed with further education.

I do not know the number of students involved. However, if the Deputy puts down a separate question I am sure I can get that information for him. I agree it is a matter of grave urgency to have the matter dealt with. As I said, the submission has gone to the Department of Finance and they are not known in that Department to delay decisions on such submissions.

Apart from the failure to implement the accounts system in relation to assessment of farm incomes, will the Minister of State say why it has taken so long to issue the circular required? Would it not have been ordinary prudence on the part of the Department between 1 July and 7 September to have prepared a contingency plan that could have been put into operation immediately?

We cannot issue any circular until we get final approval from the Department of Finance. It would be very imprudent for the Department to issue a circular they might have to withdraw.

I understood from what the Minister of State said that they had not started work in the Department on what should be put to the Department of Finance until after 7 September. My question was if it would not have been simple common prudence on the part of the Department to have prepared the submission before the order was confirmed by the court so that it could have been ruled on quickly after that.

I am sorry if I made myself misunderstood. I did not mean to say that work had not been done in the Department. I said a submission could not be made to the Department of Finance until the order was perfected and that was not done until 7 September.

(Cavan-Monaghan): Will the Minister of State say why it was not possible to take steps by way of a submission between the date of the delivery of the judgment by the court and the perfecting of the order, which simply means the order was signed? I am sure the Minister understands that when the judgment was delivered in July everyone knew what the court had decided and they knew the implications. It was quite simple to get a report from the lawyers involved in the case. Was it not adding unnecessary delay to withhold a submission for more than two months?

I cannot accept there was unnecessary delay with the Department of Education and I do not believe there is unnecessary delay at the moment. I can assure the Deputy that both I and officials in the Department have indicated to the Department of Finance and to the Minister concerned the importance of getting a quick decision on the matter.