Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

This Bill seeks to place all student support on a statutory footing, to designate VECs as awarding authorities, to provide for a system of appeals, to create penalties for fraudulent grant applications and to repeal the Local Authorities (Higher Education Grants) Acts of 1968 to 1992. The heads of the Bill were approved by Government on 19 July 2006 and we expect it to be published during this session. Whether the Bill is taken this session is a matter for the Whips.

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