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Quinn overhauls administration of student grant system

Education Minister Quinn today announced a single student grant awarding authority to replace the existing 66 grant awarding bodies - coming into effect for the 2012-13 academic year.  The City of Dublin VEC will operate as the new centralised authority following a competitive process carried by an independent selection panel.

This reform represents a concrete development in meeting the objectives set out in the Croke Park Agreement, and will bring about greater simplicity and efficiency for the more than 72,000 students eligible for grants.  Minister Quinn, pleased to be able to move quickly on this development, said …

While I am grateful to the VECs and local authorities currently operating the student grant function, the system is clearly overloaded resulting in late outcomes to applications and late payments for students.  I have said many times that this is not good enough.  I expect the single authority to address these issues delivering a very significant service enhancement to students.

Echoing the Minister’s comments USI President Gary Redmond welcomed the efficiency and cost-savings dimensions of a single awarding authority.  The single grant authority will operate on a transitional basis.  It will accept all new applications from 2012.  For this year, 2011, students will still apply to their local authorities or VECs for a grant and these bodies will continue to deal with renewal of existing grants on a wind-down basis over three to four years.

The full press release is available here.