Written answers

Tuesday, 1 December 2020

Department of Education and Skills

Higher Education Institutions

Photo of Brendan SmithBrendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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549. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a student living in a direct provision centre awaiting a decision on a residency application and at present attending second level is entitled to apply through the CAO for a course in further or higher education; if successful, if the student is entitled to apply for a SUSI grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39676/20]

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Higher education institutions (HEIs) are autonomous and determine their own procedures for admission. The CAO process applications for undergraduate, and some postgraduate, courses on their behalf.Decisions on admissions are made by the HEIs who then instruct the CAO to make offers to successful candidates. Therefore neither I nor my Department have a function in relation to such matters.

International protection applicants are eligible to apply through the CAO. However if an applicant has at any point resided outside the EU they may be required to apply directly to their HEI of choice rather than through the CAO. Applicants should contact the Admissions Office of each HEI in which they are interested to determine if they should apply through the CAO or directly. This policy may vary by HEI.

International protection applicants who have been granted permission to work, under the terms of the EU (recast) Reception Conditions Directive (2013/33/EU), are eligible to access further education and training (FET) programmes on the same basis as Irish nationals. International protection applicants who do not have an entitlement to work are entitled to free access to adult literacy and English language supports only.

Persons in the asylum process are not eligible to access the statutory based SUSI grant scheme. However, the administratively based Student Support Scheme for Asylum Seekers provides supports along similar lines to the SUSI grant scheme and is available to persons in the asylum, subsidiary protection or leave to remain process.

Following a review of the Student Support Scheme for Asylum Seekers in 2018/19, the criteria for applicants to have five years education in the Irish school system was reduced to three years from the 2019/20 academic year. Further changes were made in August 2020 removing the requirement to have attended school in Ireland or to have sat the Leaving Certificate. However, the three year requirement to be in the protection/leave to remain process still remains. This is similar to the residency requirement of the statutory-based Student Grant Scheme operated by SUSI.

The value of the award is similar to SUSI grant funding and is paid in 9 monthly instalments. Further details in relation to the scheme are available at

The majority of further education and training programmes are free of charge, but international fees continue to apply for Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) programmes and higher education courses. There is the exception, however, where applicants meet the conditions of the Student Support Scheme for Asylum Seekers.

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