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Irish Independent
06-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Cork Councillors say SUSI grant process ‘is complicated and inefficient'
The funding body provides grants for students studying for PLC, undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Ireland as well as the UK and the EU. Almost 70,000 applications have been received for the 2025/26 academic year. However, Cork County Councillors have called the grant application process cumbersome, inefficient and unnecessarily complicated. At a recent meeting of Cork County Council, Cllr Audrey Buckley put forward a motion calling on the Education Minister to review the application process. The Carrigaline Councillor said it should be simplified, particularly the income verification part. Integrating that with the Revenue Online Service would help, she said. 'It's not working, it's not fit for purpose, it's very complex, it's ineffective. When you fill out the SUSI grant, I'd say probably 80% of the time it shoots back to you because you could be missing something very simple that you could have found on the Revenue Online system,' Cllr Buckley said. Cllr Sinead Sheppard said a number of people came to her clinic last year seeking help with the application. 'We're people that fill out applications and fill out forms all day long. And even it took me a while to try and get my head around that grant to help people in the process of filling them out. It's so difficult, it's like they don't want people to continue filling it out.' 'It's the most cumbersome, leadránach and drawn-out application that you can possibly have, they nearly ask what you had for dinner yesterday. And then the difficulty about it is when you get to the other end and you pass it, you must turn around and then do it next year and the year after again,' said Cllr Finbarr Harrington. Cllr Sheila O'Callaghan said she can't see why the application process can't be linked with the information held by the Revenue Commissioners: 'Just to simplify it, the facts and the figures are there, and it would streamline the whole process for people and take the stress out of it.' Several Councillors also called for the grant's income assessment to be made on the basis of net rather than gross income. On the foot of Cllr Buckley's motion, Cork County Council agreed to write to the Education Minister to request an urgent review of the application process. SUSI told the Irish Independent that it "conducts ongoing customer satisfaction surveys to help us better understand our applicants' needs. Since opening for applications for academic year 2025/26, the application form has received an applicant satisfaction rating of over 90%." Around 70% of applicants don't need to provide supporting documentation, thanks to data sharing agreements with the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Social Protection and the CAO, SUSI said. The grant awarding authority pointed out that its support desk is available by phone, email and social media to help applicants through the process. Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
Agriland
06-05-2025
- Business
- Agriland
Farmers ‘live in fear of the tax implications of RZLT'
Farmers are being reminded that the deadline for Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) returns to Revenue is fast approaching. The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) Farm Business Committee chair Bill O'Keeffe said farmers who have made a submission to dezone their lands must now make a return to Revenue on or before Friday, May 23 to avail of an exemption from RZLT in 2025. This can be done by any individual by submitting a return on the RZLT portal through the Revenue online resources: myAccount or Revenue Online Service (ROS). The advice from the IFA for those who are not familiar with these online portals to engage professional accountancy services to make this return. RZLT All farmers who made submissions to local authorities in the February-March window should have received an acknowledgement of this by April 30. This acknowledgement must be included as part of the RZLT return to Revenue where a farmer is seeking an exemption from the 3% RZLT tax in 2025. 'IFA lobbied for a permanent exemption for actively farmed land throughout 2024. The exemption announced in the Budget 25 speech is unsatisfactory as it only covers this year,' O'Keeffe said. 'The process places undue obligations on many hundreds of affected farmers who may have lands zoned without their knowledge. 'They are now under the scope of this unfair taxation and there were several hoops to jump through to avail of this one-year tax exemption,' he said. Exemption The IFA Farm Business chair said that a one-year exemption from RZLT is not a solution. 'All actively farmed lands must be removed from the scope of RZLT permanently. 'The leaders of the three largest political parties – Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin – gave a commitment to the IFA in advance of last year's general election that they would remove actively farmed land from RZLT, but we have yet to see delivery on this commitment by the current government,' O'Keeffe said. The IFA committee chair called on the Minister for Finance, Pascal Donohoe and the Minister for Housing, James Browne to recognise that the current approach is not the correct instrument to encourage greater delivery of housing. He said that the stated aim of RZLT was to encourage housing development, but the RZLT is doing the exact opposite. 'Affected farmers live in fear of the tax implications of RZLT and its introduction has not increased interest from potential buyers to purchasing zoned land in many cases. 'Housing developers, AHBs (approved housing bodies) and financial lenders all recognise the RZLT liability associated with purchasing zoned land. 'They are standing back from purchasing zoned land in many cases, until the many other obstacles that are restricting housing development – finance, pre-planning investigations, labour and materials – are in place,' he said. O'Keeffe said that the IFA and farmers understand the need for more houses, but RZLT is not the instrument that will solve the current deficit. 'There are many other barriers to the supply of new housing that the government needs to address. 'IFA will continue this campaign to have all farmland permanently excluded from the scope of RZLT,' he added.
