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

I thank the Minister for the reply. My party put down this question to ascertain the exact position in terms of how many students had to wait until after Christmas to receive their grant. What we see from the reply is that over half of students were paid their grant after 1 January this year. This is something we dealt with in a previous question as well but it highlights the hardship many of those students had to endure while they were waiting on it.

The recent SUSI review indicated that there were severe strains on SUSI management in terms of getting the staff it needed to be able to deal with applications as they came in. It is crucial. The Minister indicated that he will do whatever he can to ensure that does not happen this year.

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