Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I welcome what the Minister said in respect of the bringing forward of the date of application. It makes absolute sense that at very least applications would be cleared pending the CAO's offer. The Minister might get that information out to the 66 awarding bodies. Presumably they will still be in place next September.

Will the Minister confirm to the House that, according to information I recently received from his Department, there are still 6,500 applications pending? If one takes as a conservative estimate that 60,000 people obtain student grants, effectively one in ten of all students who applied for student support has not obtained the grant some five months later.

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