Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 199: To ask the Minister for Education and Science when the Third Level Student Support Bill will be published; if it will address inequalities in the means assessment of different categories of workers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34127/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I announced earlier this year that the State's thirty three Vocational Education Committees (VECs) are to be given sole responsibility for the administration of third level student maintenance grants for all new applicants with effect from the 2007/08 academic year.

The change in the administration arrangements are part of my overall plans to introduce service improvements in the administration of the student grant schemes. These will include guaranteed timeframes for the earlier payment of grants, an independent appeals procedure and more efficient arrangements for handling applications and making payments. Giving sole responsibility for administering the grants to the VECs will reduce the existing client confusion caused by a variety of agencies being involved, depending on the county. It will mean that we can now achieve a greater consistency of approach across the country, while at the same time retaining local service delivery and reducing unnecessary duplication of bureaucracy.

The assessment of means under my Department's Student Maintenance Grant Schemes is based on gross income from all sources, with specified social welfare and health board payments being excluded from the calculation. Under the schemes reckonable income normally derives from the following:

Employment/Pensions;

Self Employment/Farming;

Rent and income from Land/Property;

Deposit/Investment Accounts;

Maintenance Arrangements;

Gifts/Inheritances and Disposal of Assets and Rights;

Social Welfare in certain circumstances.

I have no plans at present to alter the method of assessing means for grant purposes. However I plan to have a specific provision in the proposed new student support Bill in relation to the means of applicants. This will enable me to make regulations governing the assessment of means.