Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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204. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of providing 100 higher education places for students of returning emigrants or those that came through the direct provision service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17775/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department allocates recurrent funding (including core grant funding and free fees funding) to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for direct disbursement to the HEA designated higher education institutions. The HEA allocates this funding to the institutions and the internal disbursement of funding is then a matter for the individual institution. Higher Education Institutions are autonomous bodies and are responsible for their own day to day affairs, including the allocation of all of its income (both public and private).

The estimated cost of providing higher education provision is between €10k and €12k per student per annum therefore total cost for 100 places is between €1m and €1.2m.