County Councillor Mick Quinn has called for emergency payments to students by the Department of Social Welfare.
More than 2,000 Donegal students are still waiting for grants to be processed by the new agency set up by the Government.
Student Union leaders say the cash crisis is having a serious impact on their members.
Quinn said: “If Minister Ruairi Quinn is serious about alleviating the distress of many thousands of students and their families, he could simply request that his Ministerial colleague, Joan Burton, instruct the Dept. of Social Protection to make urgent payments to students who have not yet received their grants.
“These Urgent Needs Payments could be processed through the Community Welfare Service on the understanding that they are interim Grant payments.”
Quinn continued: “The incompetence to date of the Student Grant processing body, SUSI , does not inspire any confidence in their ability to deal with the backlog with the necessary urgency and I believe that it is now time for immediate action.
“The longer this crisis is allowed to continue, students are getting deeper into debt and I have become aware of cases where Landlords are now imposing a surcharge on students who are not in a position to pay their rent.”
Quinn concluded: “The future of our Country is dependent on an educated workforce and it is vital that this Govt. immediately removes all barriers preventing students from remaining in 3rd Level Education.”
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