Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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4. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he is aware of the lack of eligibility to access student grants for persons who hold stamp 4 visas; and, if so, if he and his Department are evaluating expanding the criteria. [23525/24]

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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Is the Minister if he is aware of the lack of eligibility to access student grants for persons who hold stamp 4 visas and, if so, what he and his Department are doing to evaluate expanding the criteria. I hope they are doing so. I think we have raised this with the Minister's predecessor every year for the past four years. I have also contacted the present Minister's Department numerous times upon his taking up the role so I hope he is aware of this and will be able to outline what he is doing to change it and make it fairer for those on stamp 4s.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I know Deputy Gannon has been in touch with my office with regard to a particular issue. In recent weeks I have not been available-----

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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I know.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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-----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.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister. I acknowledge the diligence of his office in liaising back and forth with me. From the Minister's response, I am conscious he is aware of the issue. I might just get a commitment from him that we can have a meeting-----

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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Yes.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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-----sometime over the next week or so or, if not, over the coming weeks. I will leave it there.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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That is fine. I will arrange that. As a more substantive reply, I will be meeting the Minister, Deputy McEntee, on this issue as well. As Deputy Gannon knows, the stamps relate primarily to the Department of Justice, but my office will arrange that meeting.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister. I look forward to the meeting.