21,000 students yet to receive a decision on grants

More than half of the 41,000 students to submit all the necessary documents have not yet had a decision on their grant applications.

But Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi) said it expects to have decided all those applications in time for first payments at the end of next month.

After long delays last year, Susi had 59,000 first-time applications by the early-August deadline.