Vol. 550 No. 4
803 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Education and Science if arrangements can be made for non-national persons with permission to stay here to qualify for education grants; and if his Department would examine the case of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 15. [8894/02]
My Department funds three means tested maintenance grant schemes for third level education students in respect of attendance on approved courses in approved third level institutions. These are as follows: the higher education grants scheme; the vocational education committees' scholarship scheme; and the third level maintenance grants scheme for trainees.
The statutory framework for the higher education grants schemes is set out in the Local Authorities (Higher Education Grants) Acts, 1968 to 1992. It is the local authorities that, on behalf of my Department, administer the schemes, which are reviewed annually by my Department. The VEC scholarship scheme and the third level maintenance grants scheme for trainees are administered, on behalf of my Department, by the vocational education committees.
All three schemes have broadly similar provisions relating, for example, to age, residency, nationality and means, which govern the award of a grant.
Under the nationality requirement of the schemes candidates must have EU nationality, refugee status or have been granted humanitarian leave to remain in the State. Candidates who are not EU nationals, but who have been granted leave to remain in the State on the basis that they have an Irish born child, do not meet the nationality requirement.
The question of the extension of the nationality provisions in the maintenance grants schemes, to include certain categories of non-EU nationals, will be kept under review.
