Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator. I am taking this Commencement Matter on behalf of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, who cannot be here this morning. Let me start by explaining the background to the current free fees scheme.

Under the terms of the Department's free fees schemes, the Exchequer meets the cost of tuition fees in respect of eligible students who are pursuing full-time undergraduate courses of study which are a minimum of two years duration in an approved institution. The main conditions of the scheme are that students must be first-time undergraduates, meet the nationality clause of the scheme in their own right and, for study at level 6, 7 and 8 in universities and level 8 in institutes of technology, have been ordinarily resident in an EU-EEA-Swiss state for at least three of the five years preceding their entry to an approved third-level course.

Where students do not meet the eligibility requirements for free tuition fees, including the residency requirement, they are liable to pay the appropriate EU or non-EU tuition fee as determined by the third-level institution. These institutions are autonomous bodies and the level of fee payable by students who do not meet the requirements of the free fees scheme is therefore a matter for the relevant institution.

Due to concerns in respect of the fact that in some cases the higher non-EU fee was being charged to students who hold EU-EEA-Swiss nationality but who did not meet the residency clause for free fees, the former Minister for Education and Skills requested that the higher education institutions charge the more moderate EU fee to such students who have completed at least five academic years of study at primary or post-primary level in Ireland, EU-EEA countries or Switzerland and who commence their first undergraduate course of study in an approved institution here. This position took effect from the academic year 2014-2015 onwards.

The particular concern related to people who for occupational or economic reasons have had to move abroad, requiring them to take their children out of the Irish education system in the process. If, after a period, they return to live in Ireland, in some cases their children may not have met the residency criteria necessary to qualify for free fees. In addition, they may then have found themselves doubly disadvantaged by being charged the higher non-EU rate of fee designed for international students rather than the more moderate EU rate. The Department was anxious to ensure that children who move out of the Irish education system in such circumstances and subsequently return would not be so doubly disadvantaged by being charged the higher non-EU rate of fee.

I thank the Senator for affording me the opportunity to respond to the House on this matter.