Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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327. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the funding or scholarship options available to persons that have been awarded a place to study at a university (details supplied) for one academic year that have lived and worked here preceding their study; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45928/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Under my Department's Free Fees Initiative, the Exchequer provides funding towards tuition fees in respect of eligible students who are pursuing full-time undergraduate courses of study. In order to qualify for funding under the Free Fees Initiative, 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. Funding under this Initiative is only available in respect of approved courses within the State.

Similarly, the principal support provided by my Department, in financial terms, is the student grant scheme which makes means-tested financial assistance available to qualifying full-time registered students in higher education attending approved courses in the EU, EEA and the Swiss Confederation. 

My Department does not operate or administer any scholarship scheme which extends to third level studies outside of the EU.  However, the student in question should check with his/her higher education institution to establish if there is any funding available through the institution towards such studies.