Rushing public service reforms, or doing so without key data, poses a risk to effective change of delivery, according to an assessment of lessons from the early difficulties of a centralised student grants body.

The student grants system that caused “chaos” when set up four years ago has lost so much money it would risk being closed down if it was a private company, the chair of a Dáil group has claimed.

Bad planning, outsourcing core services with no contract, and inadequate staffing contributed to student grants agency SUSI’s disastrous first year of operations that cost €5.9m — more than three times its budget.

Just €32,000 recovered by grant body who paid the money in error

The third-level grants body Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi) has made the first payments to 43,000 applicants, 4,000 more than this time last year.

Delays filing tax returns and provision of incorrect personal information are slowing grant applications for thousands of students.

Around four of every five first-year students expected to get a grant this year are already being paid or have had their payments approved, latest figures reveal.

Almost two-thirds of around 60,000 college students expected to qualify for grants have got their first payment from Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi).

Student leaders say the true measure of any improvements in the grants system will be figures on how many applications have been decided.

The body overseeing student grants refuses to say how many people have been approved, just weeks ahead of the first college term, despite promises to remove delays.

In the Irish Examiner recently (Aug 28), the City of Dublin Education and Training Board (CDETB) said that normal circumstances did not apply this year, because it had only been notified of its teacher allocation in June, by the Department of Education.

Teachers at one of the country’s biggest further education colleges are in dispute over efforts to move some staff to other colleges.

A range of improvements to the application system should help avoid the delays faced by students waiting on grants last year, claims Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi).

Sixteen new Education and Training Boards will be established today to replace the 33 VEC's across the country.