25.— (1) The Minister shall within 12 months from the commencement of section 18 by order appoint a day to be the establishment day for the purposes of subsection (2).

(2) On the establishment day referred to in subsection (1), there shall stand established a body to be known as an Bord Achomhairc i Leith Deontas Mac Léinn, or, in the English language, the Student Grants Appeals Board (to be known and referred to in this Act as the “Appeals Board”) to consider and determine appeals made pursuant to this Act.

(3) The Appeals Board may sit in divisions of itself to consider appeals.

(4) Subject to section 26, the Appeals Board shall consist of a chairperson and such number of ordinary members as may be determined by the Minister but which in any case shall not exceed 11 persons.

(5) The chairperson and ordinary members of the Appeals Board shall be appointed by the Minister from among persons who have a special interest or expertise in or knowledge of matters regarding education, administration of schemes of payments or fair procedures.

(6) The term of office of the chairperson and the ordinary members of the Appeals Board shall be for such period as shall be determined by the Minister but which period shall not exceed 5 years unless the chairperson or other member sooner dies or retires.

(7) No person shall hold office as a chairperson or ordinary member of the Appeals Board for more than 2 consecutive terms of office.

(8) The chairperson or an ordinary member of the Appeals Board may—

(a) resign by letter addressed to the Minister,

(b) at any time be removed from office by the Minister if, in the opinion of the Minister, he or she has become incapable through ill-health of effectively performing his or her functions or has committed stated misbehaviour.

(9) Where the term of office of a member of the Appeals Board terminates otherwise than by reason of the passage of time, the period of office of the person appointed to fill the vacancy occasioned by that other’s ceasing to hold office shall be specified to be the unexpired period of that other’s term of office.

(10) The chairperson and ordinary members of the Appeals Board shall be paid such fees and allowances for expenses as the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, may determine.

(11) A member of the Appeals Board shall cease to be qualified for membership of the Appeals Board and shall cease to be such member if he or she—

(a) is adjudicated bankrupt,

(b) makes a composition or arrangement with creditors, or

(c) is sentenced by a court of competent jurisdiction to a term of imprisonment.

(12) Where a member of the Appeals Board is—

(a) nominated as a member of Seanad Éireann,

(b) elected as a member of either House of the Oireachtas or to be a representative in the European Parliament, or

(c) regarded pursuant to Part XIII of the Second Schedule to the European Parliament Elections Act 1997 as having been elected to that Parliament,

he or she shall thereupon cease to be a member of the Appeals Board.

(13) A person who is for the time being entitled under the Standing Orders of either House of the Oireachtas to sit therein or who is a representative in the European Parliament shall, while he or she is so entitled or such a representative, be disqualified from being appointed as a member of the Appeals Board.

(14) The Minister may furnish such support of an administrative nature to the Appeals Board as in the opinion of the Minister is necessary in order that the Board may properly perform its functions.