Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Question 436: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the policy of education bodies as regards funding for students and the payment of fees whereby students undertaking a postgraduate who may have been awarded a postgraduate fellowship and receiving the maintenance grant but where the equivalent of the maintenance grant is also deducted from the students annual earnings; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9165/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Under my Department's Free Fees Initiative the Exchequer meets the tuition fees of eligible Students who are attending approved full-time undergraduate courses in the State. The Free Fees Initiative does not extend to postgraduate study in Ireland, however if a candidate qualifies for the means-tested maintenance grant he/she may have their fees paid up to the maximum fee limit. The maximum fee limit in respect of the 2007/2008 academic year is €6,110.

The assessment of means under my Department's Third Level Student Maintenance Grant Schemes is based on gross income from all sources, with specified social welfare and health service executive payments being excluded from the calculation.

Under the schemes reckonable income includes income from: Employment/Pensions; Self Employment/Farming; Rent and income from Land/Property; Deposit/Investment Accounts; Maintenance Arrangements; Gifts/Inheritances and Disposal of Assets and Rights; Social Welfare /Health Service Executive payments in certain circumstances.

The decision on eligibility for third level grants is a matter for the relevant assessing authority — i.e. the 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 required.