Firm processing student grants to take on extra staff

The private company, the systems of which are being partly blamed for student grant delays, is taking on a further 50 temporary staff to help try and meet a target to have 33,000 applications decided by Christmas.

Just 4,420 of the 54,000 students who supplied documents with their applications have been paid a grant, up from 3,010 a week ago.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn told the Dáil no cost-benefit analysis was carried out by City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee (CDVEC) before awarding a contract for managing documents and running the phone and email helpdesk for applicants.