Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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560. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if there is a stipulation that returning expatriates must be resident here for three of the past five years and in secondary education to avail of free fees in third level colleges. [8232/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Exchequer provides free fees funding in respect of eligible students who are pursuing full-time undergraduate courses of study under my Department's Free Fees Initiative. The main conditions of the scheme are that students must be first-time undergraduates, hold inter alia 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.

Where full-time undergraduate students do not qualify for free fees funding they must pay the appropriate fee as determined by their third level institution. Third level institutions are autonomous bodies and it is therefore a matter for the institution to determine the rate of fee payable by students (EU or non-EU).

However, in the case of students who do not meet the residency clause, higher education institutions have been requested to charge the more moderate EU fee to EU/EEA/Swiss nationals who have completed at least five academic years of study (Primary or Post-Primary level) in the EU/EEA or Switzerland.