Written answers

Tuesday, 12 April 2005

Department of Education and Science

Higher Education Grants

9:00 pm

Photo of Jan O'SullivanJan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 886: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will change the system of qualification for mature students whereby if they live outside the country in the autumn of the commencement of their course, they cannot qualify for a third level grant subsequently at any stage during their course; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10361/05]

Photo of Mary HanafinMary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Under the terms of my Department's 2004 third level student maintenance grant schemes, students entering approved courses for the first time are eligible for grants where they satisfy the prescribed conditions with regard to age, residence, means, nationality and previous academic attainment.

The condition relating to residency requires, in the case of a candidate under 23, the candidate's parents or guardians to have been ordinarily resident in the administrative area of a local authority or VEC from 1 October 2003. In the case of an independent mature candidate, he or she must have been ordinarily resident in the administrative area of a local authority or VEC from 1 October 2003. The local authority or VEC has discretion to waive this requirement in exceptional circumstances. A mature candidate is defined as a student who is at least 23 years of age on 1 January of the year of entry or re-entry to an approved course.

Mature candidates are categorised as either independent mature candidates or mature candidates dependent on parents. An independent mature candidate is defined to mean a mature candidate who was not ordinarily resident at home with his or her parents from 1 October 2003. Independent mature candidates are assessed without reference to either their parents' income or residence. For the purpose of the residency requirement, normal residence is defined to mean the permanent or ordinary address of the candidate's parents or guardians from 1 October 2003, or, in the case of an independent mature candidate, his or her ordinary or permanent address from 10 October 2003.

Candidates continue to be assessed under the terms and conditions, including the residency requirement, of the scheme appropriate to their year of entry to an approved course. There is, however, provision under the terms of the schemes for candidates who are re-entering as mature students, following a break in study of at least one year, to pursue or complete an approved course for the first time. Such candidates may be assessed with reference to the terms of the scheme appropriate to the year in which they re-enter. Under this provision, candidates who do not meet the residency requirement of the scheme relevant to the year of first entry may subsequently be eligible with reference to the residency requirement prescribed in the scheme relevant to the year of re-entry.

An example of the type of circumstances where it would be considered appropriate for the local authority or VEC to use its discretion to waive the residency requirement would be in the case of an independent mature candidate who has been outside the State for a short time during the period from 1 October 2003 but who can provide satisfactory proof that he or she had been permanently resident in the State prior to going abroad and subsequently resumed independent permanent residency in the State after the brief period abroad.

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