Call for changes to grants system

THE student grants system is still creaking with delays because the Government has failed to hand its operation over to just one agency, it was claimed yesterday.

The 60,000 grant applications submitted this year are again being handled by local councils and Vocational Education Committees (VECs).

Under the Student Support Bill, now due for publication before Christmas by Education Minister Mary Hanafin, the VECs would take responsibility for all of them and have tight deadlines for processing applications. The planned legislation was announced insummer 2006 and had been expected to be ready for implementation this year.

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) said the delay in these changes, promised in the 2002 Programme for Government, is affecting students again this year.

“Students are suffering a great deal this autumn, with VECs and local authorities failing to process grantapplications and grant payments on time,” said USI education officer Hamid Khodabakhshi.

“The ultimate fault lies not with the VECs and local authorities, but with the grants system, which needs to be centralised. Grants processing needs to be streamlined and rationalised to create a single, unified grants system administered centrally by a government department,” she said.

Student leaders launched a petition campaign yesterday, in which thousands of postcards will be sent to TDs demanding urgent action on the Government’s pre-election promise to reform the grants system.