Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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209. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will intervene in order that Institutes of Technology do not levy the student charge of approximately €833 on apprentices undertaking a ten week course in the institutes. [55548/13]

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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The Annual Student Contribution is levied on students attending Institutes of Technology. The amount due in respect of full time students for the academic year 2013 / 2014 is €2,500.

The contribution has been levied by Institutes of Technology in respect of apprentices since 2004, with FÁS/SOLAS paying part of the contribution and apprentices themselves paying the part relating to examination fees. As part of Budget 2014, SOLAS will cease making payments to Institutes of Technology and apprentices will pay the full pro rata Annual Student Contribution. This is a decision taken in the context of the overall savings this Department had to find for 2014 and future years.

Apprentices will pay the same contribution as students, apportioned for the time they spend in the Institutes. Unlike students, apprentices are paid a training allowances by SOLAS for phases of their training spent in Institutes of Technology.

This allowance is equivalent to the wages they receive from their employers for on the job phases and is unaffected by the budgetary changes. The decision has been taken against a difficult budgetary background and there is no scope to re-visit it.