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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg-e5lJOvWo&list=UUDg5Dpx6BCf_4ogh3xMqIkg&feature=player_detailpage
(TheJournalVideo/YouTube)
NEARLY SIX-HUNDRED STUDENTS still await payment of third-level student grants in what Sinn Féin TD Mary Lou McDonald called a ‘glimpse into the chaos of the last 12 months’.
Speaking during Leaders’ Questions today, McDonald asked Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore for assurances that this year the payments would be made before Christmas.
While Gilmore said that ‘nobody was satisfied’ with the first year of the body which handled the grants, Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI), McDonald said that it went beyond mere dissatisfaction.
“The very fact that nearly 600 students still have complications tells you something.
It offers just a glimpse of the chaos that reigned in this system for a year. Students and parents were at breakdown level at the levels of bureaucracy and red tape.
Gilmore said that an overhaul of the system would streamline the application process and make it smoother, in accordance with an internal report prepared by consulting firm Accenture. However, the Tánaiste stopped short of giving any guarantees about payments.
“Last year there was a transfer from 66 bodies who handle third-level grants into one, SUSI.
“I have acknowledged as has the Minister for Education that there were problems. Lessons have been learned from SUSI. There is now 23 extra staff, with 3 senior staff.
“It is fair to say that students should not experience the same problems, but it depends on the individual applications. When someone puts in an application, nobody can give a guarantee that an application would be approved.”
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Rest in Peace..
With no disrespect to the deceased or his family, garda forensic team only need to see the video… Brush up and open the road….its obvious to a blind man what happened. RIP
Close the comments.
With no disrespect to the deceased, he could have killed someone else, absolutely shocking driving down the fast lane of a motorway in the wrong direction
It was obviously a mistake.
@Shane McGrath: was it? I’d find it hard to believe that he could make that same mistake for so long he seemed to be going down the motorway for a long time nevermind all the signs Saying do not enter when entering the On ramp if it was a 20 year old young lad who did the same there wouldn’t be this kind of sympathy.
@James: This happened to me before on the M9. Met an elderly man driving towards us while we were in the ‘over taking/ fast lane’ – thankfully we noticed it in time and there was nothing on our inside so that we managed to avoid the man. It was terrifying, rang the guards and alls they could say was ‘Yes we are aware of that’.
RIP to the poor man.
Comments should be closed.
That can quite easily happen anyone especially on that part of the road, the brutal signage and the maze of roundabouts on the slip roads is atrocious. There is very often roadworks that regularly has you driving in the other side too.
I nearly got caught out coming out McDonalds last year late at night when signs from roadworks that had finished were not removed.
@Da Dell: they drove by plenty of cars heading the other direction and should have pulled into the hard shoulder of it was a mistake, horrible anyway for everyone involved
Terrible for the mans family but it’s happening too often on that road.
Twice I’ve been driving to Dublin in the outside lane and you see a dot coming towards you …it takes seconds to realise its a car on the wrong side of the Motorway and you move in pretty quickly and hope anyone behind you see’s the car.It’s usually an elderly man on his own to be honest
The woman in the red car got out pretty quickly after the crash
@silveryD: I genuinely don’t know how she managed to get out of the car that quickly it definitely saved her life thats for sure.
For the frequency that this happens , as we do seem to see rarely byt enough to come up with something. and seeing all the cars trying to warn people on the opposite side of the road, we should come up with some universal warning like , if someone holds their horn down this means to tell the other side of the road to pull in.
@Roisin Brennan: the thing is, once you realise where do you go?
Wonder if this man’s doctor gave him okay recently to have licence. Obviously he had some form of dementia.
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