Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for giving me the chance to raise this issue. Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, has been working well in this, its second year. There have not been too many problems. However, nationality and immigration status pose an anomaly in terms of selecting people for grants. The case I am highlighting arose in 2012 and involves a child who is not an Irish citizen, but one of whose parents is, and who cannot get a grant. Were the child dependent on a parent whose civil partner was an Irish citizen, the child could get a grant. In fairness, when we highlighted this anomaly to the Minister, we were told that it would be reviewed, which it was.

It was put on the Citizens Information Board website and on the studentfinance.iewebsite page. It stated that students must have permission to remain because they are the dependent child of a naturalised Irish citizen. It was taken down from the website but the child was still unable to get the SUSI grant.

I hope the Minister will examine this. We have been trying to deal with this matter over the past two years. We hope all dependent children of Irish citizens would be allowed to get the SUSI grant as we are trying to encourage as many people as possible to avail of third level education. These people have become Irish citizens, but the result is that their dependent children cannot get a SUSI grant. Perhaps the Minister will consider that.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Lawlor has mentioned a historical case. There is a specific anomaly here. The Minister for Education and Skills will have details about a specific case, where the mother has recently been naturalised and is an Irish citizen but the circumstances of her dependent daughter have changed suddenly as a result. Prior to her naturalisation, her daughter, as a dependant, was entitled to a SUSI grant, but as a consequence of the mother being naturalised in the second year of the daughter's bachelor of commerce degree in Galway, the daughter is not entitled to the grant. There is a distinct anomaly in that situation. It will probably require legislation.

The personnel in SUSI with whom I have been dealing on this case and a range of other cases have given us the space and time to deliberate on how we can move this matter forward or work around it. I reiterate what Deputy Lawlor has said. In the second year of the operation of SUSI it must be said that the staff in SUSI have been more than courteous and very professional. It is important to record our appreciation for their work and endeavours. They were subject to sharp criticism in the first year, much of it unwarranted. Obviously there were delays because it was the first time a centralised model took over from the vocational education committees, VECs, and the local authorities. There were teething problems, but the invaluable work so many personnel in SUSI are doing must be acknowledged and put on the record.

This matter is outside the Minister of State's remit but I am aware of his long-term interest in the education system and his championing in the past of equal rights and equal treatment for all citizens. There is a distinct anomaly in this case. A dependant who is over 18 years of age and who was entitled to a grant in the first year of a bachelor of commerce degree is not entitled to the grant in the second year as a consequence of her mother being naturalised. That is wrong and must be addressed. Whatever legislation is required must be introduced.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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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.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State's response is still not clear with regard to the cases we have raised. What the Minister of State says does not appear to be operated by SUSI. There are still students who should be entitled to grants on the basis of what the Minister of State said, but they are not getting them. That category should be made quite clear on the student grants scheme website. It should be clarified with regard to the nationality and immigration status of students that they would be entitled to a grant based on what the Minister of State has told us this afternoon.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. I will forward the information directly to the Minister. In the short time available to me, I wish to put another matter on the record. There is no need for a response from the Minister of State as I am putting it on the record for the consideration of the people in the Department of Education and Skills. It relates to the issue of smaller schools. The initial thinking about smaller schools was that eventually a school would become a one teacher school and, as a result of parents voting with their feet and taking the students from that school, the school would close. However, that is not the case. Parents of children in one teacher schools, and I have in mind one such school in my constituency, wish to keep their children in these schools. The teacher is under pressure so we must examine the resources available to such teachers and other resources for protection, safety, regulation and a proper educational environment. I raise this for the attention of the people in the Department of Education and Skills. They should re-think the capacity and resources being provided for the teacher in one teacher schools. Parents are voting with their feet. They wish to keep their children in one teacher schools and we must support them.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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That would be very suitable for a parliamentary question or another Topical Issue debate on another day.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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That this issue has arisen is probably an unintended consequence of the fact that more people are being naturalised. Thanks to the efforts of the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, many more people are being naturalised as Irish citizens. He has broken the bottlenecks that existed in the system and, as a consequence, the issue the Deputies have raised might well have been extenuated in some cases. That many more people have become Irish citizens is a good thing.

My understanding is that where a young person goes into the system and in the course of their studies their parent becomes naturalised, they apply either for naturalisation themselves or for leave to remain, which is the normal immigration standard.

According to my notes, where a student's leave to remain in the State is determined by reference to the conditions attached to their parents' initial permission to reside, that condition applies for the student even after his or her parents are naturalised and until such a time as a student naturalises himself or herself. The notes go on to state that students who qualified for a grant at the commencement of their studies, as they satisfied one of the conditions as set out in the student support regulations, would qualify for a grant following their parents' naturalisation. As one or both of their parents has become an Irish citizen, they then apply in their own right because they are over the age, and according to my information, whatever they had should remain.

The Deputies have put on the record information that this is not the case, so I think it is a case of SUSI officials, the Minister and his colleagues in the Department getting together and seeing whether there are some unintended consequences that were not picked up in the original regulations, because this should not be happening and I fully agree with the Deputies that this is fundamentally unfair. The Minister for Education and Skills, being a good and honest man, will take this issue very seriously and see whether a solution can be found on a small number of cases that may have come to the Deputies' attention.