Tánaiste welcomes passing of Student Support Bill by Seanad Éireann [education.ie]
- Published: 25 January 2011
The Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills,Mary Coughlan TD, today welcomed completion of the final stages of the Student Support Bill in the Houses of the Oireachtas.
The Bill is likely to be one of the last pieces of legislation passed by the current Dáil and Seanad and it is expected that the Bill will be signed into law by the President in the coming days.
The Tánaiste said: "this is the most comprehensive piece of legislation on student grants in more than 40 years and I am confident that it will facilitate huge improvements in the way that students apply for and receive their grants.
"The Bill will enable the introduction of a single new student grant scheme to replace the four existing schemes, and this should be in place for the coming academic year, 2011/12.
"This will be followed by the designation of a single grant awarding authority in 2012 to take over from the 66 local authorities and VECs through which the schemes are currently administered, enabling all grant applications to be processed and paid centrally in the future," said the Tánaiste.
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