Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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139. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on the restrictions experienced by Irish citizens who do not meet the residency time limits criteria with regard to the lower tier of third level registration and tuition fees; his plans to reform the regulation in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51984/19]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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In order to qualify for funding towards tuition fees, students must be first-time undergraduates, hold inter alia EU/EEA/Swiss nationality or certain permissions given by the Minister for Justice and Equality 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.

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. These institutions are autonomous bodies and the level of fee payable by students who do not meet the requirements of the free fees scheme is a matter for the relevant institution to determine.

My Department responded previously in relation to the impact of the Free Fees Initiative eligibility criteria on Irish nationals who had, for occupational or economic reasons, to move abroad, requiring them to take their children out of the Irish education system in the process.

To this end, in March 2014 my Department requested the Higher Education Authority (HEA) to advise the higher education sector that full-time undergraduate students who:

- Hold EU/EEA/Swiss nationality but do not meet the residency clause of the Free Fees Initiative; and

- have completed five academic years of study (at either primary or post-primary level) in an EU/EEA/Swiss State; and

- commence their first undergraduate course of study in an approved institution here from the following academic year onwards,

should be charged the EU rate of fee rather than the higher non-EU rate by their higher education institution.

MY Department has commenced a review under the EU Commission's Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP) to look at increased sustainability in higher and further education, including an economic assessment of the funding options outlined in the Cassell's report. Pending the completion of this review my Department is not planning to amend the qualifying criteria of the Free Fees Initiative.