Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this issue. The matter refers to the question of supports and, specifically, the back to education allowance scheme, which is successful, despite recent changes to qualifying criteria whereby one must wait six months to avail of the scheme. My purpose in raising this matter is to highlight certain categories of people who are deemed to qualify for the back to education allowance.

I tabled a question to the Minister for Education and Science in March and, in her reply, she stated the categories of people are as follows: those who hold EU nationality; those who have official refugee status; those who have been granted humanitarian leave to remain in the State; those who have permission to remain in the State by virtue of marriage to an Irish national residing in the State or who is the child of such a person and not having EU nationality; those who have permission to remain in the State by virtue of marriage to a national of another EU member state who is residing in the State and who is or has been employed or self-employed in the State or who is the child of such a person having EU nationality; or is a national of a member country of the European economic area or Switzerland.

That is an all-embracing list but society is ever-changing and many thousands of people have sought status under asylum and refugee laws and international conventions. However, in the absence of a proper immigration policy, they are forced to wait and do nothing while in receipt of one direct payment of €19.10 per week, which is low. This is not recognised as a qualifying payment according to the current criteria for the back to education scheme. I ask that it be considered as such a payment.

If the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is to be taken at his word, the parents of children born in Ireland prior to the passage of the latest citizenship Act are likely to be granted status in the near future and many thousands will fall foul of this criterion if their cases are not reviewed in the near future. The next difficulty is that once status is achieved by a person, the six-month qualifying criterion for the back to education allowance will kick in and, depending on when status is granted, it may not coincide with the academic year, about which the Minister of State and the Government should be aware.

Allowing more people in these categories to qualify for the back to education allowance would save the State money in the long term because, otherwise, their only prospects would be for unemployment, the longer they remain in the State and the longer they must readjust once a decision on their status has been taken. It is inhumane not only to restrict such people to spend most of their days in accommodation centres and refuse them the right to work but to further restrict them from accessing education, which can be gained at a low level in many colleges of further education.

I have been asked specifically to raise this case by Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa College of Further Education which sees its remit as not only serving the wider community but serving the community at its widest. I was once proud to be associated with the chairman of its board of management. We must recognise the reality of the new Ireland. I have also been asked to raise this issue by the Cois Tine, an organisation which provides support for asylum seekers and refugees in Ireland in so far as it can and the system allows.

The requests are simple — make the €19.10, poor payment as it is, a qualifying payment and apply it payment directly; even when people are granted status, do not allow the six month period to kick in and make use of not only the people who are willing to make themselves available for further education and subsequently for higher qualified employment, but the people who are waiting for decisions on their futures and the lives of their families. Give them something to aspire to and to occupy them while the State gets its act together in making decisions on this matter.

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