Mr. Brian Power:

I can give a briefer version, beginning with the statutory student grant scheme, which is germane to where we are. The Student Support Act 2011 is the legal basis that allows the Minister, with the agreement of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, the power to prescribe a scheme of grants. The unified single scheme first came into operation in 2011 and the eligibility criteria for student grants, including income thresholds, are reviewed annually and must be approved by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Any changes in respect of rates of grant, income thresholds or significant cost measures are announced as part of the budget.

More than 110,000 applications for student grants are received by awarding authorities each year, approximately 65,000 of which are new applications, with the balance being renewal applications for continuing students. In line with the transition arrangements from local authorities and VECs to the new centralised grant awarding authority, SUSI received in excess of 103,500 of these applications, approximately 94%.

In terms of the numbers involved, the State provides funds for the demand-led student grant scheme, which totalled €345 million in 2014. Since 2008, the number of qualifying students has increased by 42% to 81,600 grant holders in the current academic year. The budget for the same period has increased to €345 million. The vast majority of grant holders are undergraduate students, at 86.5%. A further 10.7% are post-leaving certificate students, with the remaining 2.8% being postgraduate students. Some 90.4% of maintenance grant holders receive an award at the rate of 100%, compared with only 3.68% of those awarded maintenance receiving the 25% rate. More than 19,000 students, 25%, qualified for the special rate of grant at the higher rate.

Regarding eligibility criteria, the student grant scheme plays a fundamental role in supporting families who are putting their children through further and higher education. The majority of students continue to be supported by their parents through the course of their third level studies. This may be financially, through continuing to live in the family home, or by providing support in a number of other ways. The purpose of the student grant scheme is to provide additional assistance where parental income, or capacity to provide support, is below a certain threshold.

The eligibility criteria for student grants, including the income thresholds, is reviewed annually. The student grant scheme recognises the particular pressures on larger families by providing for higher income thresholds for such families. Further increases in the income thresholds are provided for where additional family members are attending further and higher education at the same time.

A special rate of maintenance grant was introduced in 2001, recognising the additional needs of welfare dependent families in supporting students through college. The target group of those most in need was defined in terms of the dependants of people receiving long-term welfare payments, where the necessary conditions are fulfilled.

Income thresholds are necessary to ensure that grant support is properly targeted towards those who are most in need. The reckonable income limits for the standard rates of student grant generally follow the percentage increases in average industrial earnings as provided by the Central Statistics Office. This is provided on an annual basis and analysed. Any change to the income thresholds are subject to the approval of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

The reality of any programme of support that includes a process of assessment of financial means is that the defined income limits will invariably result in a proportion of applicants exceeding the specified thresholds, in some cases by small margins. The 2003 report, Supporting Equity in Higher Education, recommended introducing extra gradations to the student grant scheme. At the time, there was a 100% rate and a 50% rate. To increase equity in the scheme and to address threshold issues, 75% and 25% rates were introduced from the academic year 2003 to 2004.

Student grant applications are means tested on gross income from all sources earned inside and outside the State within a specified reference period. The assessment of income from the same starting point is considered to be fair and reasonable because this approach eliminates any distortion that might arise from different spending decisions in households. The means test arrangements for the student grant scheme are applied nationally. In all cases, gross income is assessed with certain specified social welfare and HSE payments excluded from income.

In the assessment for the special rate, the amounts taken into account are the basic weekly payment amount of the relevant social protection payment and any qualified adult allowance, where applicable. Any allowance included in these payments in respect of child dependants is excluded when the calculation of reckonable income is made for the special rate.

Significant progress has been made on increasing participation in higher education by most socio-economic groups. However, some socio-economic groups continue to be under-represented in higher education. There are also areas where participation rates are considerably below the norm, particularly in some of the large urban areas. Priority needs to be continued to support students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, especially those from families fully dependent on income support from the State. The principal support is the student grant scheme, and other targeted access supports include the student assistance fund, the fund for students with disabilities, and institutional funding for access made available through the Higher Education Authority.

There has been a consistent demand for increases in these resources in recent years.

In the context of making progress towards the system-wide objectives for equity of access for groups under-represented in higher education, the availability of new data resources arising from the centralised system will provide much greater detail on grant applicants, grant holders and the numbers and types of grants they receive. This will inform policy on the future direction of the student grant scheme as a key measure to increase participation of students in higher education, particularly for students who are still not making the transition to higher education.