Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Act 2019

• Permanent Page URL

Payment of annual charges into Learner Protection Fund and related matters

31. The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 66 (inserted by section 30 ):

“Regulations in relation to payment of annual charges into Learner Protection Fund and related matters

66A. (1) The Minister shall prescribe the amount of the annual charge to be paid, under subsection (1) of section 65, by each provider referred to in that subsection (in this section referred to as an ‘obligated provider’).

(2) The Minister may prescribe a different amount under subsection (1) in respect of different classes of obligated providers and different classes of programmes provided by obligated providers, and a class of programme may be defined in the regulations concerned by reference to the following matters:

(a) the number of learners enrolled on the programme;

(b) the number of international learners enrolled on the programme;

(c) the duration of the programme;

(d) the level of the fees charged in respect of the programme; or

(e) any other matter that the Minister considers to be relevant, having regard to the functions conferred on the Authority by section 66(3) and (5) and the desirability of there being an adequate amount of moneys standing to credit of the Learner Protection Fund.

(3) In addition to the annual charge, there shall be payable by an obligated provider into the Learner Protection Fund such amount as is prescribed if the provider fails to pay into that Fund the annual charge by a date prescribed by reference to the requirement of subsection (2) or (3), as the case may be, of section 65; the reference in this subsection to the foregoing prescribed amount being payable into the Learner Protection Fund shall be construed as a reference to that amount being payable to the Authority for the purpose of the Authority remitting the amount to that Fund (and any such amount that is so payable to the Authority, and paid to it, shall be remitted by it to that Fund accordingly).

(4) The Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, may pay into the Learner Protection Fund, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, such sums as the Minister thinks appropriate.

(5) Where default is made in payment of the amount of the annual charge or the amount referred to in subsection (3), the amount may be recovered from the obligated provider concerned by the Authority as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction, and any amount recovered by the Authority under this subsection shall be remitted by it to the Learner Protection Fund.

(6) Where a protected programme default event occurs, the provider of the programme, the subject of that event, shall notify the Authority in writing of that event within 2 working days after that event’s occurrence.

(7) The notification under subsection (6) shall include the following:

(a) details of the circumstances under which the provider has ceased to provide the programme;

(b) details of the learners enrolled on the programme;

(c) details of the programme that the provider has ceased to provide;

(d) an indication as to whether the provider intends to discharge its obligations by arranging for the learners enrolled on the programme to transfer to a similar programme provided by another provider at the expense of the provider, or the repayment of moneys most recently paid by or on behalf of the learners.

(8) References in subsection (7) to a programme having ceased to be provided by the provider shall be deemed to include references to each of the cases referred to in subsection (3) of section 64 in which, by virtue of that subsection (3), a provider is to be taken, for the purposes of the related definition in subsection (2) of that section, to have ceased to provide a programme.

(9) At the time the provider gives the notification under subsection (6) in relation to a protected programme default event, it shall also notify, in writing, the learners enrolled on the programme, the subject of that event, of that event.

(10) A notification given under subsection (6) or (9) shall comply with any requirements prescribed by the Minister.

(11) If a provider of a programme (the ‘alternative programme’) that is similar to the relevant programme referred to in paragraph (b) of section 66(3) offers a learner referred to in that paragraph (b) a place on the alternative programme, the learner may accept the offer.

(12) Subject to subsection (13), such an acceptance by the learner shall be in writing and be made within a period of 30 days from the date of the offer, after which time the offer shall be regarded as having lapsed.

(13) If the Authority considers that exceptional circumstances apply in a particular case, subsection (12) shall, with the assent of the provider of the alternative programme and the learner, have effect in that case with the substitution, for the period specified in that subsection, of such shorter or longer period than that period as the Authority determines.”.