Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome. Much is said about the needs of young people in Irish society, but when it comes to young people returning to Ireland, either to work or further their education, having had to spend a period abroad because of economic failures, it seems there is very little sympathy for their plight. We see this when young drivers are hit with massive car insurance premiums because they have been out of the country for a period and are not able to indicate a continuous period of claims-free driving.

In the area of education it seems the problem is particularly acute. I have come across a couple of cases recently, one of which involves an Irish person who studied in Ireland, obtained her primary degree and then moved to Japan to teach English for five years. She now wishes to return and study for a master's degree, but it is proposed to hit her with the full fee, not the fee an Irish person would normally expect to pay. What is the reason for this? According to the rules, she has not been resident in Ireland for three years.I know of another case in Galway where a carpenter had to go abroad to work for the past number of years. He has therefore not been tax resident in Ireland for four or five years. His son is thinking of coming home from America to study in Ireland and he has to contemplate the prospect of paying a full international fee. This is simply not fair. It does not seem to be clear what arrangements operate. It seems to differ between colleges. In some places, there is the prospect of people who have been resident in Ireland for three of the past five years getting the benefit of the free fees scheme, although even then they have to pay a student service charge which has continued to increase in recent years. People who are European citizens and who have not been resident in Ireland for three of the past five years get an EU-level fee, which is higher. People who are outside of the EU, including Irish people abroad who have not been resident in Ireland or the EU for the past five years, in some cases face the prospect of a full international fee.

This is no way to treat the Irish diaspora. This is no way to attract Ireland's best and brightest home. This is no way for Ireland to develop its economic future with the assistance of its people and its young people in particular. I need hardly remind the Government that it is not the fault of these young people that they had to go abroad either to better their experience so that they could bring a better skillset back home or out of simple economic necessity. It is not their fault their parents had to go abroad, leaving their families, friends and homes behind them so that they could earn a living and provide for their families. It is absolutely wrong that young people, whether coming back themselves or whose families are still abroad but they wish to come back and study in Ireland, would be deprived of the same access to the free fees system that an Irish citizen resident in Ireland would enjoy.

This is not the way to treat our diaspora. There must be ways to deal with it. In many ways, third-level education is seen as an income earner for Irish colleges. Bringing in students from abroad is seen as a way of bringing dollars into the country. Colleges spend increasing amounts of time and energy attracting people from abroad to study in the country because it is an income earner for Ireland. This should not be done in the case of people who are Irish citizens. They should not be exploited in that way. They should have access to the free fees system. If the argument being made is that they or their parents have not been paying tax in Ireland for the past number of years, at the very least it should be possible to address their situation through some kind of a student loan scheme, so that they are not in any way disadvantaged when they want to return to Ireland.