Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 576: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills if a person (details supplied) who is a fourth year student at the University of Limerick and who has been resident here for eight years and sat their junior and leaving certificates here is now eligible for a waiver of college fees; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27766/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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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 for tax relief, at the standard rate of tax, for tuition fees paid in respect of approved courses at approved colleges of higher education in the State and any other E.U. Member State.