With effect from 1996, the student support schemes were extended to provide maintenance grants to undergraduate students pursuing approved third level courses in other EU member states. Prior to this, grants were only payable to students who were pursuing approved courses in the Republic and Northern Ireland. In this context it was agreed that students pursuing approved courses in other EU member states, including in Northern Ireland, would be paid the value of the grant in the currency of the country in which they were studying and that the value of the maintenance grant to be paid in all circumstances would be the Irish value converted to the currency of the country in which the student is pursuing his or her course.
In December 1999, in response to a number of representations, local authorities and vocational education committees were advised that grant holders should be given the option of having their grant paid either in Irish punts or in the currency of the country in which they are studying. This concession allows students studying in Northern Ireland or the UK to receive their grants in Irish punts rather than sterling, if they so wish.
My Department is satisfied that the current arrangements are equitable and efficient. While the exchange rate difficulties with sterling are appreciated, my Department is not in a position to supplement grant aid for students pursuing courses in the United Kingdom. Moreover, such an approach could well give rise to anomalies and to claims of inequitable treatment between students studying in different countries.