Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

I compliment the Minister and her officials on the introduction of the Bill. I preface my remarks by paying a warm tribute to county council officials throughout the country who operated the education grants for many years. The area of student grants was badly in need of reform. Education is for life. It is a lifelong experience, from the cradle to the grave.

I am pleased the Department of Education and Science consulted widely with all stakeholders. I welcome the Bill in the context of those consultations. Most of the parties involved warmly and eagerly support the Bill.

The purpose of the Bill is to make provision for student grants and to enable students to attend higher and further education courses. Such education is vital as young people are our finest asset. I welcome the many students who are present in the Gallery and I wish them well in the future in their education and careers. The principal objective of the Bill is to create a more coherent system for the administration of these grants, which will facilitate consistency of application and improved client accessibility. In brief, it will enable the development of an awards system that can deliver grants on time to those who need them most. This is paramount. In the past it has been traumatic for students and their families who had to wait unduly for grants to be paid. A fair appeal system was not in place and much stress and trauma was involved.

The Bill provides for the structures around which an efficient and customer-friendly student grant process can be built, as well as providing the general basis on which students will, in future, be eligible for a grant to attend a course of higher or further education. I thank the VEC, Department officials and council staff. I am delighted that it has been decided to put the scheme under the remit of the VEC. Having served on a VEC for almost 20 years and on its adult education board I am conscious that it is well placed to deal with all matters of education, especially further and continuing education.

I welcome the new appeals system. It is important to have an independent appeals system. Fairness and transparency are vital to this process. Reference has been made by other speakers to the importance of these grants to the underprivileged and low income families. However, self-employed people who have a reasonable standard of living can experience difficulties in business or health. I almost dare not refer to the dreaded tax clearance certificate but problems can occur when accounts are not prepared in time. It is important to have a fair appeals system and proper recognition of the difficulties that can be experienced by small family businesses. I propose that assessment of income should be based on net income rather than gross income as capital allowances for small businesses are not taken into account.

I compliment the Minister on the introduction of the Bill. I welcome the residence changes. It is important to streamline this area as it has been a cause of concern in the past. In some cases young people of 19 or 20 years no longer live at home and they have a right to be assessed independently of their parents. I welcome the fact that this will be the case. I accept that transparency is necessary in this regard. The appeals process will ensure this is the case. Fairness to all sides is important.

Like previous speakers, I hope the final version of the Bill will be warmly supported. I commend the Bill to the House.

See this speech in context