Vol. 576 No. 5
452 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of students from countries other than Ireland currently in receipt of the back to education allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30048/03]
The back to education allowance is a second chance education opportunities programme designed to encourage and facilitate certain groups who are receiving social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active workforce.
There are 7,498 participants availing of the BTEA scheme, of whom 5,375 are pursuing third level courses of study and the remaining 2,123 are pursuing second level courses.
Information on the nationality of persons receiving a BTEA is available only in cases where the people concerned were in receipt of either unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance prior to participation in the scheme. This is not available in relation to people on other qualifying payments.
