Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response, which he made in a calm manner. No amount of sweet talking will change the reality students are facing. The Minister of State outlined that 18,000 decisions have been made on the 66,000 applications, with 9,000 refused and 9,000 people informed that the grants they applied for will be paid. Not all of the 9,000 have been paid. I resent how the Minister of State is trying to put the blame on students. He told us that 21,000 of the remainder are awaiting documentation. I put it to the Minister of State that it is not the fault of the students. The system set up by the Minister of State and the Minister for Education and Skills is unable to deal with the job it has been given. In many cases, students were not informed until very recently of the additional documentation required. What is the Minister of State saying about the rest, apart from the 21,000 awaiting documentation? All that is happening is that the applications are being checked. The Minister of State expects 40% of them to be sent back to students because of incomplete documentation. That tells us it is not the students' fault but the fault of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, who is nowhere to be found as the problem is turning into a crisis.

Deputy Nolan and I are being told the applications may be processed by Christmas. How will the applications be processed by Christmas if the Minister of State is expecting 40% of those yet to be checked will be sent back? This is a mess and the feeble response from the Minister of State and the response of the senior Minister, going hiding, gives me little confidence the problem will be sorted out. The Minister of State should sit down with the senior Minister and get this under control as quickly as possible. Students are scraping by in college and their futures in college are in jeopardy because of the way the Government has handled this. I hope for a stronger response and a plan to get grants to students as quickly as possible.

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