Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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1348. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of altering the free fees criteria to include migrants, asylum seeker and undocumented students. [20674/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The cost of including all prospective students, as referenced by the Deputy, under the free fees criteria are not available.

The Department of Justice adjudicates on a person's entitlement to remain in the State and on the stamp that is awarded where permission to remain is sanctioned.

As the Deputy will be aware, the fee payable by a student can vary depending on a variety factors including the type of course and the student's access route including previous education.

Under the Department's Free Fees Initiative, the Exchequer pays tuition fees on behalf of eligible students attending approved full-time undergraduate courses. In order to qualify for funding under the Department’s Free Fees Initiative, students must meet the criteria of the scheme including the separate residency and nationality/citizenship requirements. Persons in the asylum application process that do not hold the required permissions as granted by the Minister for Justice are not eligible to access the Free Fees Initiative.

Where students do not qualify for free fees funding, they 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 in accordance with their own criteria; the Department therefore has no role in the decision.

An administratively based Student Support Scheme for Asylum Seekers is currently in operation in my Department which provides supports along similar lines to the SUSI grant scheme. This scheme was introduced in 2015 and is available to persons who are either:

- asylum applicants; or

- subsidiary protection applicants; or

- leave to remain applicants.

Following a review in 2020, the requirement for prospective applications to have attended three academic years in the Irish school system and to have obtained the Leaving Certificate in the State is no longer required. Prospective applicants still have to meet the requirement to have been in the protection or leave to remain process for three years.

I believe these measures represent an important step in supporting asylum seekers in participating in higher education.