Kathleen Funchion
Ceist:160. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of restoring maintenance grants for postgraduate students to pre-2012 levels. [27511/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 26 June 2018
Ceisteanna (160)
Freagraí scríofa
As the Deputy will be aware, I secured additional funding of €7m in Budgets 2017 and 2018 to facilitate the reinstatement of full maintenance grants from September 2017, for the most disadvantaged postgraduate students. This benefitted circa 1,000 post graduate students who met the eligibility criteria for the special rate of maintenance grant for the academic year 2017/18 and reversed the budgetary cut that was imposed on this cohort of students in 2012.
If postgraduate supports were returned to the pre-2012 level and numbers, it is estimated that additional funding of €44.1m would be required on top of the additional €7m secured in recent budgets.