Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is important to state that All Hallows is a private college and is not in receipt of core grant funding. However, the Department provides grants in lieu of tuition fee funding to the college in respect of three approved undergraduate courses. This funding amounted to over €430,000 for the 2013-2014 academic year in respect of the 119 eligible students who attended courses for the full year. The ALBA programme referred to by the Deputy is a part-time course and is, therefore, not an approved course for free fees funding. A decision was made to provide specific funding - initially under the EGF and subsequently by means of the grant scheme - to certain students, namely, former employees of SR Technics who undertook the course on a full-time basis. When the EGF funding was withdrawn, the Department agreed to support the full-time qualifying students to complete their studies. These were ex-SR Technics employees who were undertaking the ALBA degree on a full-time basis. As already stated, the institutions are autonomous bodies in their own right. I hope this answers the Deputy's question.

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