Quinn rebukes FG minister over student grants claim

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn issued a public slap-down to Fine Gael as tensions over means testing capital assets for student grants escalated.

The Labour TD rounded on the newly appointed junior agriculture minister Tom Hayes for saying the controversial policy had been “dropped”.

In a stinging rebuke to his Fine Gael colleague, Mr Quinn said while he had been in Cabinet for two-and-a-half years, Mr Hayes had only been in office “half a day” and no decision on grants had been made.