Peter Kelly (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

I congratulate the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, on the job she did. We are lucky to have a Minister with a keen interest in education who loves her brief. As a former teacher, she has great practical experience in the area. It is a pleasure to work with her for the betterment of education facilities. Last Monday, the staff and students at Athlone Institute of Technology, welcomed the laying of the foundation stone for an extension to the campus by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen. The institute has done tremendous work in producing graduates of the highest standards.

The four existing means-tested maintenance grant schemes are the higher education grants scheme, which generally applies in the university sector; third level maintenance grants scheme for trainees, which applies to level 6 or level 7 courses in institutes of technology; the vocational education committees' scholarship scheme, which generally applies to level 8 courses where students have already pursued a level 7 course; the maintenance grants scheme for students attending post-leaving certificate courses.

The higher education grants scheme is a statutory scheme under the Local Authorities (Higher Education Grants) Acts 1968 to 1992, administered by local authorities. The other three schemes are administrative schemes managed by vocational education committees.

In accordance with the commitment in the programme for Government, the Minister for Education and Science plans to introduce a single unified scheme of maintenance grants for students in higher education. The objective is to create a more coherent administration system to facilitate consistency of application and improved client accessibility. It will also ensure public confidence in the awards system which delivers grants on time to those who need them most.

The Department of Education and Science engaged in extensive consultations with the key stakeholders such as the Irish Vocational Educational Association, the County and City Managers Association, the Union of Students of Ireland and various social partners. It also consulted Departments, such as the Department of Social and Family Affairs, and the Revenue Commissioners to map the most logical and effective arrangements for the future structure and administration of the student support schemes. Achieving consensus is the best approach to decision-making and drafting legislation. I hope other Departments will follow the example shown by the Department of Education and Science to reach consensus with relevant stakeholders in future decision-making processes.

Arising from these consultations, the Minister for Education and Science announced her decision to consolidate the administration of the planned unified grants schemes within the VEC sector. Following that announcement, the Government approved the drafting of the Bill along the lines of the general scheme presented to it. The Bill is part of a broader programme of legislative and administrative reform of student grants being undertaken by the Department of Education and Science.

The purpose of the legislation is to provide for the making of student grants to enable students to attend higher and further education courses. The Bill's principal objective is to create a more coherent system for the administration of these grants, which will facilitate consistency of application and improved client accessibility. In short, it will enable development of an awards system that can deliver grants on time to those who need them most.

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 be eligible for a grant to attend courses of higher education. It aims to place all student support schemes on a statutory footing for the first time. It gives effect to the announcement made in 2006 that the 33 VECs were to be given sole responsibility for the administration of student maintenance grants, reducing the number of grant awarding authorities from 66 to 33. This provides for greater consistency of application and increased clarity and accessibility for students and institutions alike.

I thank the county councils which administered part of the scheme up to now. I thank, in particular, Mr. Tommy McDonald, the finance officer at Longford County Council, and all his staff for their help, courtesy and efficiency in the way in which they have dealt with the scheme. I welcome the fact that the VECs will be running the scheme in the future and wish Ms Josephine O'Donnell, CEO of County Longford VEC, and all the members of the committee every success in its administration. I have no doubt they will be customer-friendly. I am also delighted that the scheme is moving from the county council to the VEC and glad to see it will be administered by the staff of a body with members who are elected to represent the people. I am a strong advocate of democracy and consider that all decisions to be taken in this country should be left in the hands of elected representatives, be they town councillors, county councillors, TDs or Ministers. That is what the people want. We want democracy. It is a well known fact that nowadays all our politicians are accessible to the public. Most politicians, county councillors and town councillors included, are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to deal with their constituents and give a very good service.

The Bill provides for transitional arrangements with local authorities, periodic inspections, reviews and audits of the performance of awarding authorities, and the transfer of functions from a VEC which is not performing its functions effectively or has failed to follow a direction of the Minister. That is not the case with Longford VEC, an excellent body which carries out its duties with responsibility and in the best interests of the public it serves.

The Bill also gives the Minister the power to make regulations regarding applications, including a requirement that an awarding authority give notice of its decisions to applicants within a specified period. It is important that people are not left hanging but are notified of decisions as soon as possible. Education is and has always been the only way forward. We need everybody to be highly educated. It is fair, right and proper. When people are educated to the highest standards, they are able to look after themselves and create a good future for themselves and their families.

The Bill obliges students to inform awarding bodies of any change in their circumstances and those of their parents or spouses that might affect their entitlement to a grant. An independent appeals board will be established in order to introduce further transparency into the grant awarding process. I welcome this, as people should have the chance to appeal. Sometimes there have been problems with grants, as students, through circumstances beyond their control, are lumped in with their parents from the point of view of income. Perhaps some time in the future we will see them being evaluated in their own right, without the incomes of their families being taken into consideration. Students who want to go on to higher level education are serious people who want to do well and are genuinely interested in furthering themselves. I welcome the establishment of an appeals board and hope those who sit on it will be understanding and sympathetic. It has come to my notice that students who are just slightly outside the income bracket sometimes end up having to work very hard at weekends and in the evenings, trying to mix work with study. Every facility should be given to those who wish to study and improve their knowledge.

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