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Students on Trinity College campus, Dublin. Graham Hughes/Photocall Ireland

Extra staff in place to tackle student grant backlog

CEO of SUSI, Jacinta Stewart said over 66,000 applications were received by the online system.

ADDITIONAL STAFF HAVE been put in place to assist in the backlog of student grant applications, an Oireachtas Committee was told yesterday.

Appearing before a committee meeting on education, CEO of online application system SUSI, Jacinta Stewart said over 56,000 applications were received before the closing date at the end of August and a further 9,000 were received since then.

She said the grants system expects to have in excess of 30,000 awards made by the end of December, with additional staff being put in place to help deal with the backlog.

SUSI has received ten extra temporary staff from the Public Appointments Service and an additional ten will join on Monday.

Yesterday Fianna Fáil brought forward a Private Member’s Motion on third level fees and the SUSI grant processing system.

In the Dáil, Fianna Fáil leader Michael Martin said “the priorities which have been followed to date are making the Irish education system more unfair and less effective”.

Commenting on motion yesterday Fine Gael TD Derek Keating said it “completely ignores the fact that it was the previous administration who created complete chaos in the education sector with students having to go to as numerous different agencies to access grants”.

Education Minister Ruairí Quinn apologised to students and their parents last night in the Dáil for the problem with applications.

“It is not acceptable for colleges to prevent students from accessing libraries, email accounts, lecture notes, or any resource because their grants have not yet been processed,” he said.

He said as the minister for education and skills he accepted responsibility for the problem but said now was not the time for an inquiry.

“Let’s fix the problem and give the grants out and get the confirmation out to all of the applicants who are eligible… I don’t want to have an inquiry in the middle of trying to solve the problem,” he said.

Read: Kenny: “All successful applicants will receive grants by year-end”>

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    Mute Daniel Fontaine
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    Oct 24th 2016, 8:28 AM

    Delighted that the person was rescued.
    And that the infernal noise polluting machine found its way to the depths of the ocean.
    Good outcome all round.

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    Mute Tom Collins
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    Oct 24th 2016, 8:54 AM

    Christ the summer is over put it back in the shed

    56
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    Mute brian boru
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    Oct 24th 2016, 9:04 AM

    Jet skiers – idiots of the boating world ! Have rescued more of these adrift in Dublin bay then any other craft ! Always someone with no formal training or understanding about how to take a vessel to sea

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    Mute Lucille Ball
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    Oct 24th 2016, 1:20 PM

    @ Daniel.. agreed…

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    Mute Ariana
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    Oct 24th 2016, 8:39 AM

    Glad it ended well, but they shouldn’t have gone out on their own.

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    Mute Kers Neil
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    Oct 24th 2016, 9:23 AM

    @Ariana: I wouldnt have put put my dog out in that wind yesterday. It amazes my how people make decisions such as this. I saw a couple yesterday walking along the top of the prom wall at Clontarf. Whats wrong with the path?

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    Mute Brendan Hughes
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    Oct 24th 2016, 9:40 AM

    At least they had the good scense to tell someone they were going. Give them credit for that.

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    Mute Mr KnowitAll
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    Oct 24th 2016, 10:02 AM

    Terryglass in Tipperary is a great spot to go jet skiing. Cruise over to Portumna for a couple of pints and back again before dark.

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    Mute Jimmy Murphy
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    Oct 24th 2016, 10:41 AM

    They’re not restricted by calendar dates and people have fun with them. Stop being so cynical, a person could have been lost here, thankfully that didn’t happen, he had a life jacket, someone obviously knew he was out there and well done to the emergency crew.

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    Mute Ian Phillip Creaner
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    Oct 24th 2016, 10:25 AM

    They? Their? How many people?

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    Mute Paddy Lions
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    Oct 24th 2016, 1:12 PM

    @Ian Phillip Creaner: It looks it was one person with many different personalities, a modern day Sybil.

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    Mute dearg doom
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    Oct 24th 2016, 1:32 PM

    The sea was awful yesterday, very surprised they ventured out.

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