Thousands of students who applied through the new central online system Susi will not receive their grants before Christmas.
Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn confirmed in response to Dáil questions from Fianna Fáil education spokesman Charlie McConalogue, that 7,132 of the 66,827 students who applied for grants had received payments at the end of November.
The Department of Education announced details in June of the new system which deals with grant applications for the 2012-2013 academic year.
Mr McConalogue said that while 32,000 grant applications had been processed, just a fraction of these students had received a payment.
He accused Mr Quinn of “spinning the figures to make this situation look more palatable than it is. It now looks extremely likely that the vast majority of students will not receive a grant payment until well into the new year.
“It is the lack of certainty that is causing the most distress . . . The longer this lingers, the greater the likelihood that more students will be forced to drop out.”
