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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 14 May 1991

Vol. 408 No. 4

Written Answers. - Liability for Examination Fees.

Emmet Stagg

Ceist:

179 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Education whether arrangements can be made, either through grants from the Department of Social Welfare or a waiver from her Department to ensure that students whose family are recipients on unemployment assistance or equivalent payments are not liable for fees for her Department's certificate examinations.

My Department already operate a scheme whereby a reduction in examination entry fees may be allowed in cases of particular hardship. The amount of the reduction in the case of a necessitous pupil is determined at the discretion of the school authorities, subject to the total amount of such reductions not exceeding the maximum specified by my Department.

For the purposes of the scheme a necessitous pupil is defined as a child from a home where genuine hardship exists because of unemployment, prolonged illness of parent, large family with inadequate means, single parent, more than one child from the same family doing the certificate examinations, or other circumstances that would connote a similar degree of domestic financial hardship.

Furthermore, a pupil who is repeating the leaving certificate will be exempt from the "repeat" fee where dependent, or whose parents are dependent, on a medical card.
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