Single agency may deal with grants

THE Government is considering a single agency to handle student grants and possibly other means-tested payments.

The legislation planned to hand responsibility for all 60,000 third-level grants to Vocational Education Committees (VECs) has been stuck at Dáil committee stage since January 2009.

They are currently operated by the 33 city and county VECs and by 33 city and county councils, and almost 20,000 students expected to qualify for grants had still not been approved by mid-November.