Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 72: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills his plans to move to a centralised grant system; the amount of money this would save the universities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38340/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will be aware that, in line with the Transforming Public Services agenda, it is intended that the student grants administration process will be streamlined to create one consolidated student grant scheme to be administered by a single grant awarding authority. The main objective of this reform of the administrative arrangements is to bring about greater simplicity and efficiency to the system. The new administrative arrangements will be fully customer focused to ensure the efficient and timely delivery of grants to those students who demonstrate an entitlement.

The Student Support Bill, due to progress to Committee Stage shortly, will provide an enabling legislative framework for the provision of all student grants, facilitating the creation of the single consolidated grants scheme and underpinning the reform and streamlining of administration procedures for the management of the grant awarding process.

This reform programme has the potential to deliver a significant service enhancement benefit to student grant applicants through streamlined processes, greater consistency in dealing with applications, faster processing due to economies of scale and full implementation of the on-line applications system introduced in September 2010.

It is anticipated that it will also deliver substantial administrative cost savings beyond the initial transitional phase in both the assessment/award function at grant awarding authority level and in administrative inputs at college level. The extent of savings in each area will depend on the implementation mechanisms to be agreed following selection of the single grant awarding authority.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 73: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills when the High Court decision relating to payments of higher education grants to students attending private colleges will be implemented; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38343/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The statutory framework for the Higher Education Grants Scheme, as set out in the Local Authorities (Higher Education Grants) Acts, 1969 to 1992, provides for means-tested higher education grants to assist students to attend full-time third level education in approved institutions. The institutions approved under the scheme are, generally speaking, publicly-funded third level colleges offering full-time courses at undergraduate and post-graduate level. Each year, the Higher Education Grants Scheme specifies a list of institutions approved for the purposes of the scheme.

My Department provides very significant funding to publicly-funded third level institutions in the State. This funding is used to provide a very broad range of courses to meet both economic and societal needs. Private commercial colleges, in general, operate on a "for profit" basis and the State has no say in directing their operations.

I have no plans to extend the scope of the student grant schemes to private colleges operated on a "for profit" basis at this time and I am not aware of any relevant High Court ruling in this regard.