Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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221. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to expand eligibility to the student fund for those with disabilities, the student assistance fund and a maintenance grant for part time students; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31145/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education 2015-19 contains more than 30 actions that are intended to make higher education more representative of wider society. One of five goals in the plan is to assess the impact of current initiatives to support equity of access in Higher Education Institutions. These include the Fund for Students with Disabilities (FSD) and the Student Assistance Fund (SAF), both of which are managed by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) on behalf of my Department.

Reviews of the Student Assistance Fund and the Fund for Students with Disabilities were commissioned by the HEA. The Review of the Student Assistance Fund was published in September 2016. The recommendations in the Review are being implemented by the HEA in consultation with the DES. A Steering Group has been set up to support this process. The review of the Fund for Students with Disabilities is due to be published shortly.

The potential for reviewing options for existing access funding initiatives to part-time studies in higher education could only be considered in the context of the overall priorities and financial resources for access to higher education, and in the wider higher education funding context.

An additional €8.5million was announced in Budget 2017 for access measures to promote participation by under-represented groups in higher education.

- Measures to encourage HEIs to engage directly with disadvantaged communities in order to attract more disadvantaged students (€2.5)

- Reinstatement of maintenance grants for the most disadvantaged postgraduate students (€4m)

- Measures to facilitate more lone parents to access higher education (€1m)

- A new 1916 bursary scheme (€1m)

Postgraduate grants have been re-introduced in the Student Grant Scheme for the 2017/18 academic year for the most disadvantaged students.