Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----but my office will gladly meet him with regard to the specific issue he has.

I thank Deputy Gannon for raising this question. To be eligible to apply for a student grant, you must be an Irish, EU, EEA, UK or Swiss national or you must have one of the permissions to remain provided by the Minister for Justice, which are listed in the Student Support Act 2011 and the Student Support Regulations 2024. The Deputy may wish to note these permissions relate to the underlying basis of a person's right to remain in the State, for example, as a refugee or a dependent child of a naturalised Irish citizen, rather than the stamp a person has been granted.

I am aware that, depending on the permission underlying a person's stamp, not everyone who has been given a stamp 4 fulfils the eligibility criteria of the scheme. Our Department continually monitors eligibility for the scheme. For example, in last year's options paper, we considered the inclusion of persons who benefited from the Department of Justice regularisation scheme, and we have included students who have received permission under strand 2 of that scheme in the student grant support scheme for the coming academic year.

In respect of this year's options paper, the Department is exploring further options with respect to increasing the range of eligible immigration permissions in the student grant scheme. We will have regard to the query raised by Deputy Gannon and will continue to liaise on an ongoing basis with officials from the Department of Justice on the various immigration permissions in the context of student grant eligibility.

See this speech in context