Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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158. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of increasing the non-adjacent maintenance grant to €4,025 for full-time students at undergraduate and postgraduate level, respectively. [30801/17]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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159. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of increasing the adjacent maintenance grant to €2,215 for full-time students at undergraduate and postgraduate level, respectively. [30802/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 158 and 159 together.

Based on data for the 2015/16 grant scheme, the estimated cost of increasing the 100% maintenance grants by €1,000 would be €26.7m for adjacent students and €29.2m for non-adjacent students.

Extending the 100% maintenance grants to postgraduate students and increasing the current values by €1,000, is estimated to cost €2.6m for adjacent students and €5.1m for non-adjacent students.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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160. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of extending a non-adjacent maintenance grant to €4,025 to part-time students at undergraduate and postgraduate level, respectively. [30803/17]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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161. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of extending the adjacent maintenance grant to €2,215 to part-time students at undergraduate and postgraduate level, respectively. [30804/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that the student grant scheme is not currently available to part-time students. As such, it is difficult to provide costings for this cohort of students.

However, based on enrolment data for part-time students provided by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), the estimated cost of increasing the current value of the 100% adjacent and non-adjacent grants by €1,000 and extending them to part-time undergraduate students, would be in the region of €19m and €20.6m per year respectively. 

The estimated cost of increasing the current value of the 100% adjacent and non-adjacent grants by €1,000 and extending them to part-time postgraduate students, would be in the region of €3.5m and €3.8m respectively.