Rónán Mullen (Independent)
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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.

Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)
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The Senator has made his point. His time is up.

Rónán Mullen (Independent)
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I would be grateful to hear the Government's response. This is an urgent and pressing issue.

Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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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.

Rónán Mullen (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for her response. As always with these matters, it is a prepared response. It is not the Minister of State's fault that this is not nearly comprehensive enough to address the nature of my query. What of the student who is an Irish citizen who has been outside of the EU? It is quite clear from the Minister of State's script that it is only in the case where they have been getting their second-level education in the EU that they would qualify for the more moderate EU fee, as the Minister of State described it. What of people returning from abroad to do a Master's degree? If they were in the Irish system, they would proceed to free fees on the Master's programme. They are being deprived of that. The Government needs to rethink this whole area and to look at the injustice being done to Irish citizens returning from abroad who wish to study and who should be availing of that study at the same rate as an Irish person who was educated and studying at home.

Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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I again draw the Senator's attention to the main conditions of the scheme, which include the condition that students are first-time undergraduates. I stand to be corrected but I think that students who seek to do a Master's degree are not funded under the free fees scheme. I will check that out for the Senator.