Vol. 571 No. 1
608 Mr. P. McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Science the criteria by which the children of immigrants are assessed for higher education maintenance grants and free fees; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that many such students are having difficulty meeting those criteria; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20643/03]
Under the terms of my Department's third level maintenance grants schemes, students who are entering approved courses for the first time are, generally speaking, eligible for grants where they satisfy the relevant conditions as to age, residence, means, nationality and previous academic attainment. Under the nationality clause of the schemes a candidate must either hold EU nationality; or have been granted humanitarian leave to remain in the State; or have permission to remain in the State by virtue of marriage to an Irish national residing in the State, or be the child of such person, not having EU nationality; or have permission to remain in the State by virtue of marriage to a national of another EU member state who is residing in the State and who is or has been employed, or self-employed, in the State, or be the child of such a person, not having EU nationality; or be nationals of a member country of the European Economic Area, EEA.
The grants schemes contain a change in circumstances clause which provides that a candidate's eligibility may be assessed or re-assessed in the event of a change in circumstances in relation to, inter alia, reckonable income, the number of dependent children and normal residence. Following a review of the “change in circumstances” clause in 2002, it was decided to implement a revision in the 2002 grants schemes through the addition of “nationality, where the candidate becomes an Irish national or the national of another EU member state” to the categories of circumstances which would allow for the reassessment of an application, arising from a change in the applicant's circumstances. This revision allows candidates who acquire nationality during the course of their studies to apply to be assessed or re-assessed for grant assistance with effect from the academic term when the change occurs.
With regard to my Department's free fees initiative, under which the State meets the tuition fees for eligible undergraduate students following approved courses, the position is that such fees will be paid in respect of EU nationals who have been ordinarily resident in an EU member state for at least three of the five years preceding their entry to their third-level. Tuition fees will also be paid in respect of EU migrant workers, their children and spouses, regardless of the spouse's nationality. Persons who have been granted official refugee status are subject to the terms and conditions of the free fees initiative.
I consider the conditions of the student support provisions outlined above to be reasonable. Any cost-increasing changes in the grant schemes or the free fees initiative, as suggested by the Deputy, could only be considered in the context of available resources and the demands of other priorities in the education sector.
609 Mr. P. McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Science the reason students who are totally independent of their parents fail to qualify for higher education grants even though they reach 23 years of age during their studies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20644/03]
The Local Authorities (Higher Education Grants) Acts, 1968 to 1992 provide that the means to be taken into account for the purpose of assessing eligibility under the scheme are those of the student, if any, and of the parents or guardians of the student. The Acts make special provision for the assessment of means in the case of mature students. Under the terms of the higher education grants scheme, mature students are categorised as either independent mature students or mature students dependent on parents. An independent mature student is defined to mean a mature student who was not ordinarily resident at home with his or her parents from the October preceding their entry to an approved course. Independent mature students are assessed without reference to either their parents' income or address. The statutory definition of a mature student is a person of not less than 23 years of age who has reached that age on the 1st day of January in the year of entry to an approved course. Parental income must, therefore, be taken into account irrespective of the individual circumstances, when assessing the means of students other than independent mature students. The other student support schemes have similar provisions in relation to the means assessment of students.
Question No. 610 answered with Question No. 552.
