Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 602: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she has satisfied herself that refugee and asylum seekers who have been granted residency status are gaining appropriate access to education, in view of the existence of restrictive criteria that hinder such access. [9213/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The main conditions of my Department's free fees initiative are that students must be first time undergraduates and hold EU nationality or official refugee status and have been ordinarily resident in an EU member state for at least three of the five years preceding their entry to an approved third level course. Official refugees are eligible on the same residency terms as Irish nationals. Asylum seekers are not eligible under the free fees initiative. My Department provides financial support under three third level maintenance grant schemes and one maintenance grants scheme in respect of post-leaving certificate courses. Under the terms of the schemes, grant assistance is awarded to students who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, means-testing and previous academic attainment.

The nationality requirement applies equally under all four schemes and requires that candidates must hold EU nationality; or have official refugee status; or have been granted humanitarian leave to remain in the State; or have permission to remain in the State by virtue of marriage to an Irish national residing in the State; or be the child of such person, not having EU nationality; or have permission to remain in the State by virtue of marriage to a national of another EU member state who is residing in the State and who is or has been employed, or self-employed, in the State; or be the child of such a person, not having EU nationality; or be nationals of a member country of the European economic area or Switzerland.

Asylum seekers are not eligible to be considered for grant assistance. However, candidates who have been awarded official refugee status or humanitarian leave to remain in the State are eligible to be considered for grant assistance on the same basis as Irish nationals. In the case of non-nationals who seek entry to vocational training programmes within the further education sector, refugees are treated on the same basis as Irish nationals in terms of access. The arrangements to be applied to non-nationals provide that in the case of asylum seekers with an entitlement to work, that is, those who entered the country before 26 July 1999, who have been waiting at least one year for a determination of their case and are in possession of a notification of their right to work from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform must be treated on the same basis as Irish nationals in terms of access to vocational training programmes within the further education sector. Asylum seekers who do not have an entitlement to work may avail of free access to adult literacy, English language and mother culture supports only.