Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Financial supports are currently available for approximately 2,300 postgraduate students who meet the eligibility criteria of the student grant scheme.

Postgraduate students who meet the qualifying conditions for the special rate of grant under the student grant scheme are eligible to have their postgraduate tuition fees paid up to the maximum fee limit of €6,270. Alternatively, a postgraduate student may qualify to have a €2,000 contribution made towards the cost of his or her fees. The income threshold for this payment is €31,500 for the current year, increasing relative to the number of family dependants.

The programme for Government contains a commitment to increase financial supports for postgraduate students, with a particular focus on those from low income households. The options for progressing this commitment are currently under consideration in my Department within the context of overall budgetary constraints and the large number of competing demands for available funding.

Funding for postgraduate students also needs to be viewed in the wider context of the overall funding available for the higher education sector. As we discussed earlier, the recently published Report of the Expert Group on Future Funding for Higher Education, which is going to the Oireachtas, raises the issue of how best to support students in a sustainable model of funding for the higher education sector.

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