Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 September 2011
168 Deputy Olivia Mitchell asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a person (details supplied) in County Wicklow has been classified as a non-resident student and required to pay a higher college fee when they have been living here for the past ten years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24755/11]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the terms of my Department's Free Fee Scheme the Exchequer meets the cost of tuition fees in respect of eligible students who are pursuing full-time undergraduate courses of study which are a minimum of two years duration in an approved higher education institution. The main conditions of the scheme are that students must be first-time undergraduates, hold inter alia EU/EEA/Swiss nationality in their own right, and have been ordinarily resident in an EU/EEA/Swiss state for at least three of the five years preceding their entry to an approved third level course. I understand that the student referred to by the Deputy is a US national and therefore does not meet the nationality requirement of the scheme.
Where undergraduate students, such as non-EU students, do not meet the eligibility criteria of the free fees schemes, it is the higher education institution concerned that determines, in accordance with its criteria, the appropriate tuition fee payable by such students. I also understand, that in this case the student, by virtue of his education and residency in the EU, has been approved by the third level institution concerned as being liable to pay the ‘EU rate of fees'.
Section 473A, Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997, as amended by Section 11 of the Finance Act 2011, provides for tax relief, at the standard rate of tax, for tuition fees paid in respect of approved courses at approved colleges of higher education including certain approved undergraduate and postgraduate courses in E.U. Member States and in non EU countries. Details are available on the Revenue Commissioners' website at www.revenue.ie.
