Vol. 476 No. 1
101 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the stipends, if any, which are available for postgraduate science students in competing EU countries such as the United Kingdom or Denmark, as compared to the £2,000 or less fees which are available here; and the number of postgraduate science students who have gone abroad rather than attempt to live under such circumstances. [6419/97]
The level of support available in different European countries varies according to conditions which pertain in the particular country. Simple comparisons may, therefore, be misleading. For example, if one takes the case of the EU Training and Mobility of Researchers Programme which supports the movement of post-graduates across Europe and in which 46 Irish researchers participated since 1994, it is interesting to observe that the European Commission does not pay a standard or uniform rate. Rather they pay a specific rate tied to conditions, including tax arrangements in different countries and hence there is a spread of over 300 per cent between the rates applicable in different countries.
I presume the £2,000 figure mentioned in the question refers to the annual grant paid under the Basic Research Grants Scheme, which figure I increased from £1,000 in 1996. I would point out that students in receipt of such grants may also apply for means-tested higher education grants under the Local Authorities (Higher Education Grants) Act, 1968.
However, I would also stress that many other postgraduates are selected by other State-sponsored schemes which are spread across many disciplines in many universities, with grant rates substantially in excess of the figure quoted in the Question. For example, the Department of Health Scheme provides for a grant of £4,500 and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Scheme provides £7,500 per student. In the case of my own Office of Science and Technology, the Programmes in Advanced Technology have some 190 postgraduate students on their books, each in receipt of an average of £6,500 per annum.
