John Cregan
Question:207 Mr. Cregan asked the Minister for Education and Science the position on the third level free fees scheme and in particular, the rules and criteria on students who opt out of courses and start the same course or different ones again; the details of the rules; the position when a student returns to college after a five to ten year gap; if free fees start again after a five year gap; if it matters if a student withdraws early in the year, at Christmas for example; if they must formally deregister or if attendance records of non-attendance suffice; and the reason a student who withdrew from a Dublin Institute of Technology certificate course in 1993 now has to pay when doing a degree course and is being told he would not pay fees if the 1993 course was a degree course. [29268/03]