Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the information and for the constructive way in which he is approaching this. I am very open and want to do more in this area. Since I came to office, we have already made three changes to try to support students coming to Ireland. First, we removed the requirement for prospective applicants coming in through our international protection system to have attended three academic years in the Irish school system and to have obtained a leaving certificate. I thought that was a ridiculous requirement. Subsequently, in 2021 the scheme was further expanded to allow eligible applicants to undertake postgraduate courses. In March of last year, my colleague the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, and I jointly announced that international protection applicants with permission to work would no longer be required to pay the international student fees to access post-leaving certificate, PLC, education courses.

We have been working with the sector. We have been listening to NGOs and the Irish Refugee Council. I accept there is a valid argument regarding those with stamp 4 visas. I am sure my colleagues in the Department of Justice will have a view and I need to engage with them on that. I will be happy to revert to the House and to the Deputy then.

See this speech in context