Mr. Nick Henderson:

I thank the committee for the invitation to address it. I will speak on the further and higher education element of the committee's remit. I will begin with a little information on what the Irish Refugee Council does. Removing barriers to access to further and higher education is one of our key pillars. In recent years, there has been considerable impact and success and State-driven changes to broaden access to further and higher education, which we strongly welcome. We also administer an education fund each year, which is just about to open. Ukrainian refugees will be eligible to apply to it. That is supported by independent donations and in the last year we supported more than 500 people - refugees, protection applicants and Ukrainian refugees - who had inquiries about further and higher education.

I take this opportunity to emphasise to the committee that we believe that in addressing the needs of people from Ukraine in accessing education, be they children or adults, the State has a unique opportunity to remove barriers facing all refugees and international protection applicants. Maintaining a focus on equality of access will be crucial to ensuring we do not, either intentionally or unintentionally, create a tiered system of education access. In the context of children, we reiterate that we must cherish all children equally.

Our recommendations are broken down into three categories. I will begin by speaking about education for children and make one point on that. It is to draw attention again to the necessity for equal allocation of resources. I refer to the report yesterday by Emma O'Kelly of RTÉ and primary school teachers flagging the issue of English language supports being given to Ukrainian children and not to other children from a protection-seeking background. We must level up, not level down.

In terms of our recommendations regarding Ukrainian refugees and all refugees, the first category is the administration of support schemes. The Irish Timesreported in mid-May that Ukrainian college students were to get grants and free education. We strongly recommend that all refugees and protection applicants would be eligible for this. This is something we have advocated frequently to the Department and to other stakeholders. That would require a change to the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, scheme, the free fees initiative and the student support scheme whereby refugees and all people seeking protection would be eligible.

The second recommendation relates to the timing of various supports. This includes, for example, the Central Applications Office, CAO. I understand the opportunity to apply has passed. If students are going to access further and higher education in September 2022, there might have to be a mechanism that allows people to apply to get into university at that date. In addition, both the back to education allowance, BTEA, and the voluntary training opportunity scheme, VTOS, require a period of receiving social welfare. For the BTEA it is three to nine months and for VTOS it is six months. We recommend that if people on temporary protection are going to be eligible to receive those supports, the three-month and six-month requirements be waived.

We also have recommendations on ensuring that third country nationals who have fled Ukraine would be eligible for education opportunities. This is a much smaller proportion of the total number of Ukrainian refugees in Ireland, but they cannot be forgotten. Work will also have to be done on the recognition of prior learning - we have a report on this - and particularly the recognition of healthcare qualifications. Our report will be launched later in July. Work will have to be done on ensuring that adults have access to English language supports. Education and training boards are doing strong work there, but there will need to be a recognition of proper resourcing, particularly in areas where many refugees are living.

To conclude, we believe this is a great opportunity to support not only refugees from Ukraine but also all refugees and people seeking protection.