Quinn: Some student grants will be paid after Christmas

The Education Minister Ruairi Quinn is admitting some student grants may not be in bank accounts until the new year, a week after saying they would all be paid by Christmas.

Mr Quinn is adamant though that the backlog of applications in the 'SUSI' system will be cleared in December.

That is despite no increased progress in the past week with just 2,000 extra applications processed, a rate that would not clear the backlog by Christmas.

However, the Minister said extra staff are now on board and he will ensure all grant applications are processed.

Mr Quinn said: "They are taking on extra staff, currently they have 79 staff, they are taking on an extra 50.

"They assure me that they are satisfied that that will be sufficient to process. I will be constantly monitoring that and monitoring the volume of processing that is taking place.

"And should more staff be necessary, I will ensure that they take on the extra staff to do the task for which they are being contracted."