Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 1686: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if a person over 23 years of age who returns from abroad on unpaid leave to take a one year masters course in the University of Limerick is entitled to a grant or tax relief; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2336/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The decision on eligibility for maintenance grants is a matter for the relevant local authority or VEC. These bodies do not refer individual applications to my Department except, in exceptional cases, where, for example, advice or instruction regarding a particular clause in the relevant scheme is desired.

Under the terms of my Department's four Student Maintenance Grant Schemes, grants are payable to candidates pursuing approved full-time courses who meet prescribed conditions, including those pertaining to nationality, residency, means, age and previous academic attainment.

Under the residency requirement a candidate's parents, or in the case of an independent mature candidate, the candidate herself/himself, must have been resident in the State from the 1st October of the year prior to entry on an approved course.

It is not open to me, or to my Department, to depart from the terms of the schemes in individual cases. However, Section 473A, Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997, provides tax relief, at the standard rate of tax, for tuition fees paid in respect of approved courses at approved colleges of higher education including certain approved undergraduate and postgraduate courses in E.U. Member States and in non EU countries. The application form (I.T. 31 Form) to claim tax relief on tuition fees is available from the Revenue Commissioners. Further information is available from your Local Tax Office or alternatively from the Revenue Commissioners' Internet site at www.revenue.ie.