Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 381: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills if a person (details supplied) in County Mayo is entitled to free fees. [18829/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Under the terms of my Department's Free Fee Initiative 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 are that students must be first-time undergraduates, hold EU/EEA/Swiss nationality in their own right and 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. Students with official refugee status in the State who meet the criteria of the scheme may also be considered under the Free Fees Initiative.

It is the students own nationality or his/her immigration status in the State that determines whether or not he/she meets the nationality requirement outlined in the Free Fees scheme. The assessment of eligibility under the Free Fees Initiative in individual cases is a matter for each higher education institution to determine within the terms of the scheme.

Where students do not meet the eligibility criteria of the Free Fees initiative such students must pay the appropriate tuition fee as determined by the third level institution. Such institutions are autonomous bodies and, as such, the level of fees to be charged in such cases is a matter for the institutions. In that regard, Section 473A, of the 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.