Legislation has been signed by the Minister for Social Protection today, ensuring that scholarships awarded to PhD students with a disability will not impact on their disability allowance.

It follows a campaign from Achill native Catherine Gallagher, who was prepared to forfeit her scholarship stipend, in order to retain her disability payment and associated travel and medical allowances.

The 23-year-old disabled student told Midwest News last week that she is not alone, as the present system works against disabled students successfully taking up scholarships to pursue postgraduate studies.

Her situation was raised in the Dail by Mayo Deputy Rose Conway Walsh, the Sinn Fein Spokesperson for Higher Education, who called on the government to end the unfair practice of removing disabilities supports from students who are awarded postgraduate scholarships.

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys signed the new legislation earlier today, fittingly calling it ‘Catherine’s Law’ in honour of the campaign by the Mayo student.

Catherine Gallagher can now focus her energy on pursuing a doctorate on the topic “Journalism and Political Communication Response to Covid 19 in Ireland.”

She told Midwest News that there is only good to gain from more disabled researchers in postgraduate education.