Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 April 2021
1321. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the progress of all qualifying students in receiving the €250 refund on fees; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19391/21]
View answerIn recognition of the challenges facing full time third level students, financial assistance will be provided in academic year 20/21 to all students who avail of SUSI grants and to all EU full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students attending publicly funded Higher Education Institutions in the state.
The scheme will ensure students:
- Who avail of the SUSI grant will receive €250 top-up in their grant;
- Students who do not avail of the grant but attend publicly funded Higher Education Institutions in the state can reduce by €250 any outstanding contribution fee payments or receive a €250 credit note for their institution;
- In a small number of cases, alternative arrangements will be made for the payment of the monies to students.
The scheme will provide financial assistance to all eligible full time third level students in recognition of the significant upheaval they have experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the options are designed to ensure students who are not in receipt of SUSI will benefit from the measure.
The first payments to SUSI grant holders were made on December 18th 2020 and by March 12th 2021, a total of €18.3m had been paid to 73,348 students (6,528 PLC and 66,820 HEI students). It is estimated that a further 754 students will receive the payment before the end of the academic year.
For non-SUSI students, a key administrative feature of the fund is that it is was implemented with the assistance of individual publicly funded institutions in the State under the remit of my Department with the credit distributed to students before the end of the 2020/2021 academic year.
It is estimated that in the order of 116,500 Non-SUSI students have received €250 COVID Student Support funding credits through their higher education institutions.
The department will be working with SUSI, the HEA and institutions in the coming weeks to confirm the final number of students that received this support.
