I wish everyone well as they go off for their summer break. Coincidentally, as we rise for the summer recess, today is the 95th birthday of Nelson Mandela, who is also known as Madiba. I am sure the Tánaiste will join me and others here in sending best wishes, on behalf of the Irish people, to him and his family on this occasion.

By the time we return in September, many students will have started their third level college courses. We are all too well aware of the debacle surrounding the SUSI grant application system last year. Thousands of applications were delayed, rejected in error or, in some cases, lost. I know of one young student whose grant, believe it or not, only came through this week. That student has been waiting for the grant since before Christmas. As the Tánaiste knows, students will not be entitled to graduate from their courses if their fees remain outstanding - not to mention the hardship caused to many students by the delay or denial of grants. This morning, the Ombudsman for Children, Ms Emily Logan, confirmed that students may complain to her if they are unhappy with their treatment by SUSI.

What guarantee can the Tánaiste give that next year's intake of third level students will not have the same experience? Can the Tánaiste guarantee that the first payment of third level grants will come through by Christmas? Have the recommendations of the independent review of SUSI been fully implemented? Is the Tánaiste satisfied that SUSI has adequate resources in place to process third level grant applications in a timely fashion?

I join Deputy McDonald in expressing, on behalf of the Government, my best wishes on the 95th birthday of Nelson Mandela. He is a heroic and iconic figure for us all.

For the coming year, SUSI has introduced changes to make the process much easier for most applicants. Its internal procedures have been developed to respond to the experiences of last year's applicants. No one in this House was satisfied with SUSI's first year of operation, but all the changes to SUSI will serve to improve significantly the service offered to students applying for student grants.

There have been reports in the media of students still awaiting grant payments for the 2012-2013 academic year. Those reports are of serious concern to us all, especially the Minister for Education and Skills.

Of the 70,000 applications for student grants, 99.23% are now fully complete. SUSI is still awaiting some documentation from 18 students, representing 0.02% of all applications, and is in contact with them by telephone, e-mail and post in this regard.

Twelve months later.

Final decisions have been made in respect of a further 500 applicants, representing 0.75% of all applications, but payment has not yet been made. In most cases, this is because SUSI has not received bank account details or students are no longer continuing their courses. The next payment date is 25 July. I appeal to each of these students to ensure they have provided their bank details to SUSI in time for payment to be made on that day.

In terms of the coming year, 22,000 students who were awarded grants last year have already submitted applications to renew their grants for next year and a further 26,000 students have submitted new applications for next year. This will allow SUSI to process applications over the summer months rather than having to wait until September to commence receipt of applications.

An independent review of SUSI was carried out by Accenture in recent months. In line with the recommendations of that review and, in preparation for the 2013-14 academic year, the online applications system and application assessment process have been further developed to deal with the difficulties experienced in year one. A number of new initiatives will also make the application process more efficient this year. Applications for the 2013-14 academic year have been accepted since 20 May this year while those who received grants last year have been able to apply for a renewal of their grant online in recent weeks. A number of changes have been made to the application process, including the collection of bank account details at an earlier stage in the process so that grant payments can be made as soon as applications are approved. More significantly, a direct transfer of data between the Revenue Commissioners, the Central Admissions Office and General Registration Office is now in place. SUSI now has access to appropriate Department of Social Protection social welfare records. This will allow it to significantly reduce the supporting documentation required of applicants.

SUSI is working to improve how it communicates with students. Its website has been completely overhauled to ensure that all information for students is available in one place and an online tracker system is now also available to applicants so that they can monitor the progress of their applications.

The fact that at this stage there are 600 students still experiencing difficulty in terms of their grant applications says it all. This is only a glimpse of the chaos we know reined in this system in the last academic year.

The Tánaiste referred to the provision of documentation. I am sure he is aware that the level of bureaucracy involved in this exercise almost caused parents and students the length and breadth of this country to have nervous breakdowns. While I welcome that there will now be data exchange between the Revenue Commissioners, the Central Admissions Office and the Department of Social Protection, it is hardly revolutionary. We do not exactly live in the dark ages. However, I am glad this will now happen.

I did not get from the Tánaiste's response the type of commitment I was seeking from him on behalf of Government to the students. He said that the independent review recommendations have been implemented. Can he assure students that the chaotic scenario which prevailed in the last academic year will not recur this year and that they will receive this year's payments by Christmas? Will he give that commitment?

On assessment of grants, the Tánaiste will be aware that assessment of eligibility of a student to a grant on the basis of gross income has caused significant problems for many families. My colleagues and I have received a great deal of correspondence on this issue as, I am sure, has the Tánaiste.

The Deputy must conclude. She is over time.

It takes no account of outgoings or a family's debt burden. The Tánaiste referred to assessment criteria. Would it not be fairer to calculate a student's eligibility on the basis of net rather than gross income?

Some 42% of all third level students are in receipt of a grant. Last year, the student grant administration system was transferred from 66 different bodies, including county and city councils and VECs, to one body, namely, SUSI. I have acknowledged, as has the Minister for Education and Skills on a number of occasions, that there were problems with this. What is important is that the lessons learned in that transition process have resulted in changes being made, including an increase of 23 in the number of staff in SUSI involved in the processing of applications. In addition, a review was undertaken by Accenture of the way in which the process operated. As I said earlier, the recommendations made by Accenture are being implemented. Some of those recommendations involve earlier processing of applications and an earlier-----

I know all that. I want to know if students will receive this year's payments by Christmas.

We are way over time.

Students will not experience the type of difficulties they experienced last year. However, as we all know much depends on the quality of applications and so on. As far as the operation of SUSI is concerned, the type of problems experienced last year have been addressed. There has been a significant number of changes made in the operation-----

The Tánaiste cannot guarantee payments will be made by Christmas.

We are over time.

The Fianna Fáil spokesperson ran over time too.

There is an application system for student grants in place. Nobody can guarantee what decision will be made in respect of applications. It may be-----

Can the Tánaiste guarantee that eligible students will receive their grants by Christmas?

The Deputy asked if the recommendations of the review were being implemented.

I asked if students will receive their grant payments by Christmas.

I detailed the changes being made for the Deputy. When that information was not bad enough, she decided to change tack and ask a different question.

No. I want to know if students will receive their grant payments by Christmas.

Grant applications will be processed efficiently by SUSI. We have put in place a much better system for this year. It is the intention that the applications will be processed by Christmas.