The new Student Support Bill published yesterday should make it easier for third-level students to secure grant payments.
About 57,000 third-level students, including those taking post-Leaving Cert courses, receive maintenance grants every year.
The new legislation, expected to take effect in the 2009-10 academic year, streamlines the process of application and payment of maintenance grants.
Under the current system, students have to apply to local authorities and the VECs for grants. The new Bill will see VECs given sole responsibility for the administration of student maintenance grants, halving the number of awarding authorities to 33.
Yesterday the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, said "this will significantly simplify the range of different grants and awarding authorities which students must currently negotiate in order to apply for a grant".
The new arrangement, she said, will also include guaranteed time frames for more timely payment of grants and more efficient arrangements for handling applications and making payments.
The Bill also sees the introduction of a new independent appeals board for those refused support, and tougher sanctions for those making fraudulent claims.
Last night Ruairí Quinn, Labour's education spokesman,said the Bill was "welcome if long overdue". It will, he said, improve an inefficient grant system which routinely leaves many students waiting weeks if not months for grant money that is due to them.
He said the flaws of the current system have forced students to look for work to ease their financial burden instead of concentrating on their studies.
