Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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223. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if asylum seekers who arrived here as children and have completed their second-level education and leaving certificate will be permitted to attend third-level educational institutions; and to set out the financial supports they may be eligible to apply for. [27000/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Universities and institutes of technology, under the Universities Act 1997 and the Institutes of Technology Acts, are autonomous bodies and, as such, have responsibility for their own academic affairs, including issues relating to the admission of students. Therefore it is a matter for the institutes themselves to set admissions requirements for individual programmes of education and training and to ensure that students meet those requirements before commencing their studies.

The following  financial supports are available for eligible third level students.

1. SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland)

Under the terms of the statutory based student grant scheme, grant assistance is awarded to students who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means.

2. Pilot Support Scheme

My Department's Pilot Support Scheme is targeted at students in the Protection System or at the Leave to Remain (but not deportation order) stage. Students who don't qualify for support under the statutory based scheme may be eligible to apply for this pilot scheme.

To qualify for this scheme prospective students have to meet a number of criteria, including a requirement to have:

- 5 years in the Protection system at the 31st of August 2016;

- 5 years in the Irish school system as at the 31st of August 2016; and

- have obtained a Leaving Certificate.

The closing date for receipt of applications for the 2016/17 academic year is 4th November 2016.

Application forms can be accessed at www.education.ie/en/Learners/Services/Pilot-Support-Scheme/

3. Tax Relief on Tuition Fees

Further information on this tax relief is available from the Revenue Commissioners on www.revenue.ie.

4. The Student Assistance Fund

Students in third-level institutions experiencing exceptional financial need can apply for support under the Student Assistance Fund. This Fund assists students, in a sensitive and compassionate manner, who might otherwise be unable to continue their third level studies due to their financial circumstances. Information on the fund is available through the Access Officer in the third level institution attended. This fund is administered on a confidential, discretionary basis.

5. Free Fees Initiative

In order to qualify for tuition fee funding, students must be first-time undergraduates, hold inter alia EU/EEA/Swiss nationality in their own right, and have been ordinarily resident in the EU/EEA/Swiss state for at least three of the five years preceding their entry to an approved third level course. Where students do not qualify for free fees funding they must pay the appropriate fee - either EU or Non-EU, as determined by each higher education institution.