Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for raising this important issue. I also thank them for their kind remarks concerning the staff who operate SUSI. I apologise that the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, is unable to reply on this issue in the House today.

Under the terms of the student grant scheme, grant assistance is awarded to students who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those which relate to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means. The nationality requirements for the student grant scheme are set out in section 14 of the Student Support Act 2011 and regulation 5 of the Student Support Regulations 2012. The nationality rules require that the student be an Irish, EU, EEA or Swiss national. There are a number of exceptions to this requirement. A person who holds refugee status or the rights and privileges as specified in section 3 of the Refugee Act 1996 or holds subsidiary protection pursuant to the European Communities (Eligibility for Protection) Regulations 2006 meets the nationality requirement.

In addition, a person who holds a prescribed immigration status as provided for in the Student Support Regulations 2013 may also meet the nationality requirement. These include permission to remain as the family member of an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen under the European Communities (Free Movement of Persons) Regulations 2006 and 2008, under the EU directive on EU treaty rights provisions, and on the basis of marriage to or civil partnership with an Irish national resident in the State or as the dependent child of such person. A person who has humanitarian leave to remain granted before the Immigration Act 1999 came into effect or permission to remain in Ireland following a decision not to deport a person under section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 also meets the nationality requirements.

In all cases, to qualify for a student grant, it is the grant applicant and not his or her parents who must meet the nationality or prescribed immigration status requirements in his or her own right. In some instances, for example, where the student entered the country as a minor, their leave to remain is linked to that of their parents. Where it is established that a student meets the nationality requirement based on such leave to remain, a grant may be awarded. Where the parents are subsequently naturalised during the student's course, the student would continue to meet the nationality or prescribed immigration status requirements as their status is linked back to the parent's permission to remain in the State prior to naturalisation.

If there are particular cases the Deputies wish to raise, perhaps they would forward them to the Minister for Education and Skills, who can examine them and raise them with SUSI.

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