Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 April 2024
317. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will consider changing the eligibility criteria for the student grant scheme to enable students whose family was granted legal residency in Ireland through the regularisation of long-term undocumented migrants scheme to apply using the total number of years they lived in Ireland, including when they were undocumented. [17239/24]
View answerUnder the Student Grant scheme, SUSI grants are awarded to eligible students attending an approved course in an approved institution who meet the conditions of funding, including nationality and residency.
The scheme has a statutory underpinning and is operated in accordance with the provisions of the relevant primary legislation, namely the Student Support Act 2011.
In order to be eligible for a grant, a student must show that they have been resident in the State for at least three years out of the five year period ending on the day before their course starts. The residency rule is applied equally to everyone, regardless of their individual circumstances, including Irish citizens returning home from a period of working abroad. The Act also explicitly states that a person shall not be entitled to derive any benefit from a period of unlawful presence in the State.
As the Deputy is aware the Department of Justice recently ran a time-limited Regularisation Scheme for Long-Term Undocumented Migrants which closed for applications in August 2022.
The Scheme had two strands:
Strand 1 was open to applicants who had a period of 4 years residence in the State without an immigration permission, or 3 years in the case of those with minor children, immediately prior to the date on which the scheme opened for applications;
Strand 2, called the International Protection Regularisation Scheme, was open to those in the international protection system for two years or more prior to the date of the commencement of the Scheme (7 February 2022), who were living in Ireland, and have been doing so for a long period of time with a temporary residence under the International Protection Act 2015 and hold a Temporary Residence Certificate (TRC).
Under the 2024 Student Grant Scheme, persons who have received permission to reside under the International Protection Regularisation Scheme have been included in the definition of student in the context of student grant eligibility.
My Department will continue to liaise on an ongoing basis with officials in the Department of Justice on the various categories of immigration status in the context of student grant eligibility.
