Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

1080. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the expenditure on SUSI each year since 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31832/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The table below provides a breakdown of the expenditure relating to student grants and administration costs for each of the financial years 2011 to 2020, as requested by the Deputy.

The Student Grant Scheme is administered by Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI), a business unit of City of Dublin Education and Training Board (CDETB). The CDETB was appointed as the awarding authority for the student grant scheme in 2012.

The data encompasses expenditure relating to student support from the other 66 awarding authorities who continued to process renewal applications on a transitional basis, pending the full transfer of all grants to SUSI.

Please note the figure for Student Support in 2020 includes the €18.5m extra once off allocation for Covid-19 measures.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

1081. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if graduate entry medical students were exempt from the progression criteria in a SUSI fees waiver application and could access funding as if it was their first undergraduate course. [31833/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Under the terms of the Student Grant Scheme, grant assistance is awarded to students attending an approved course in an approved institution who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means.

To satisfy the terms and conditions of the Student Grant Scheme in relation to progression, a student must be moving from year to year within a course, having successfully completed the previous year or be transferring from one course to another where the award for the subsequent course is of a higher level than the previous course.

Students pursuing GEM programmes do so as second degree courses and consequently are not eligible for free fees funding or for student grants. However, in order to widen access to GEM programmes, and give assistance towards the financial burden on each student pursuing these programmes, the fees of participating EU students are partly subsidised by the State via the Higher Education Authority (HEA).

Institutions participating in the graduate medical programme have been requested to provide accompanying services and supports to facilitate the participation of disadvantaged students in the programme. Details of these services and supports are available from the relevant institution.

The Programme for Government contains commitments to, among other things, review SUSI eligibility criteria, adjacency rates and postgraduate grant supports. On foot of these commitments approval was given to commence a review of the Student Grant Scheme. The review is being conducted by external consultants. It is anticipated that the SUSI review will be completed later this year and will inform policy priorities for the next Estimates process and future considerations regarding the development of student grant policy.

Students on graduate entry medicine courses may be eligible to apply to the Student Assistance Fund (SAF) for financial support. The SAF guidelines provide that students with a previous higher education qualification at the same NFQ level, or who, in the past, attended higher education without ultimately obtaining a qualification, may be considered for support on a case-by-case basis and subject to available funding.

In addition, tax relief at the standard rate of tax may also be available in respect of tuition fees paid for approved courses at approved colleges of higher education. Further information on this tax relief is available from a student's local Tax Office or from the Revenue Commissioners website, www.revenue.ie.