(Limerick East): Arising from the Minister's reply I would like to ask her if it is now common practice for her Department to request the files from local authorities and reverse refusal decisions, in what appears on the face of it to be a most biased fashion, on individual cases? Could the Minister provide us with information on how many files have been sought on higher education grants and how many times decisions have been reversed?

The Deputy is raising a particular matter.

I do not have the files with me. Is it that about which the Deputy is inquiring?

(Limerick East): I am asking if the Minister has information to the effect that local authority decisions on higher education grants, where refusals have occurred, are now being reversed by her Department.

I do not have the list with me of any reversals or otherwise.

(Limerick East): I am not asking for the list. I am trying to establish whether this practice is being carried out at ministrial level or at administrative level. Is the Minister aware of the practice?

What is the Deputy alleging is being done?

This is worthy of a separate question. We are entering into a new area now.

(Limerick East): There are certain cases which have been refused for higher education grants——

By the local authority.

(Limerick East): Appeals have been made to the Minister's Department and decisions have been reversed in a manner which seems to be biased.

I take the point of view that the county councils and the VEC committees are the relevant subagents of the Department of Education for so doing but the provisions of the Act allow, as the Deputy knows, for an appeal to the Department in very rare cases. We applaud the local authorities and the VEC Committees for the very observant and rigorous way in which they are carrying out their inquiries into the means testing process of the parents or guardians of the applicants. The Act allows for such a direct appeal but it is utilised very rarely in my Department.

That disposes of questions for today.

(Limerick East): I will be putting down a question to establish how frequently it arises.

If the Deputy looks back over the record of the previous Government he will see how often it arose.