Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 October 2020
78. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will remove non-EU third-level education fees for asylums seekers in order that they can be treated as domestic students in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31376/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraI have a very specific question on non-EU fees being charged to asylum seekers and making it completely impossible for them to access third level education.
My answer will be much the same as the one I gave to Deputy Barry because the question is very similar and important. I say on the record of the House that it is not right and I am clear on that. What am I doing about it? The first thing we did was to make amendments in August to the student support scheme which was welcomed by the Irish Refugee Council. I do not see this as the end. The expert group report which is looking at the whole issue of asylum direct provision and chaired by Dr. Catherine Day came to Cabinet today and is due to be published tomorrow. The Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, is due to produce a White Paper on international protection by the end of the year. I hope through that process to be able to advance some of these issues. I do not think our thinking is very far apart on this issue.
My apologies as I have only heard the tail-end of the Minister’s reply so I only caught some of it but I welcome it and I welcome that Dr. Catherine Day’s report is going to be published tomorrow. Does the Minister have any idea of the number of asylum seekers who cannot attend university in Ireland simply because of finances and lack of resources? From a newspaper report I understand that three got places in university but did not come under the criteria.
I appreciate that he made a very welcome change in August 2020 and I thank him for that. There is a long history there in the easing up of restrictions and in making it more humane. It took a pilot project five years ago on third level education and the McMahon report. I know that the restrictions were changed from five to three but my information is that there is a considerable if finite number of people that we could very easily deal with.
I do not have the numbers for the specific question but I have a number that is interesting. The number of people who applied under the administrative student support scheme for asylum seekers this year is at 86, as of 12 October. That is more than have applied and have been successful in the past five years put together. Over the past five years the figure was 79, from 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, that is in those five academic years. In this year alone it has been 86 which is a welcome improvement. I have no doubt that this will become more of an issue because there have been a number of children affected by a referendum on citizenship that I did not and would not have supported. The changes from that have left many children here in our country who could very well have fallen into that category. They have been brought up in this country and are as Irish, in my view, as I or the Deputy. When these people reach college age they will not, as things currently stand, have an entitlement to free fees. We need to look at that.
