More than 40 third-level students have occupied the offices of Wicklow County Council in protest at the late payment of Higher Education Grants.
The students, who are members of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), "stormed" the council chambers at around 1pm but were removed by gardaí and are now in a lobby area outside the chamber doors, USI's deputy president Dan O'Neill said.
"The guards threatened to remove us at first, but they have let us stay in the building. The occupation of Wicklow County Council is just the first step in a long campaign to get student grants paid," Mr O'Neill said.
Every year students faced delays in the payment of their grant money, but this year, because of the increasingly straightened circumstances of many families, students have no money to fall back on while they wait for payment, he said.
"This is happening up and down the country. More and more families are finding themselves in difficult situations and while in the past students were able to get jobs to tide themselves over, those jobs aren't there anymore."
There was an additional problem this year, Mr O'Neill said of more students applying for grants, but local authorities not being permitted to take on extra staff.
The USI was calling on Minister of Education Batt O'Keeffe to address the situation as a matter of urgency by enacting the Student Support Bill.
If Mr O'Keeffe does not intervene the protests will be brought to other local authority offices next week, Mr O'Neill said.
In a statement, the council said there had been a significant increase in the number of grant and “this substantial workload is being carried out at a time when the actual number of staff performing this function has been reduced”.
“The first tranche of maintenance paying orders have been drawn and arrangement are being made to post them out to the colleges,” it said.
“The colleges will receive the paying orders by registered post on Wednesday morning and in this regard the students are advised to contact their relevant Student Grant Office in their respective colleges.”
