Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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426. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of increasing SUSI grants by 10%, and the income threshold by 10%; the impact of the changes across bands; the number of additional students that would benefit in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38503/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Officials from my Department are currently liaising with SUSI on this matter. Due to the complex nature of the query it is not possible to give the Deputy an answer at this stage. Once the information has been collated it will be forwarded to the Deputy directly in the coming days.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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427. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills The number of students that qualify for postgraduate fee grants; the number that applied in 2021; the total funding for same in the 2021/2022 academic year; the estimated cost of restoring entitlement for full maintenance student grants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38504/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The main support available to students is the statutory based Student Grant Scheme where students are studying for the first time or are progressing to study at a higher level. The decision on eligibility for a student grant is a matter, in the first instance, for the centralised student grant awarding authority SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland) to determine. Currently Postgraduate students who meet the qualifying conditions for the special rate of grant under the Student Grant Scheme are eligible for the postgraduate special rate of maintenance grant. The income threshold for this grant is €24,500, also special rate postgraduate students are eligible to have their post graduate tuition fees paid up to the maximum fee limit of €6,270. All other postgraduate students who earn below the income threshold of €54,240 in 2021/22 qualify for postgraduate fee contribution of €3,500.

To date there have been 5,266 applications at postgraduate level for the 2021/22 academic year, of which circa 3,900 have been awarded. Of these circa 1,000 have been awarded the special rate of grant, which includes a maintenance payment of up to €5,915. The estimated cost to restore maintenance grants to the remaining grant holders who are in receipt of a "fee only grant" would be in the region of €7.5m for a full year. This would benefit in the region of 2,600 students currently receiving a fee only grant based on 2021/22 awards of which 90% are paid. Not all grant holders who are awarded a grant are paid out for a variety of factors including failure to attend the course. As the 2021/22 application process has not yet been finalised due to issues such as ongoing appeals or outstanding queries to applicants, it is not possible at this stage to give the total amount of funding that has been paid out to this cohort.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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428. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated full-year cost of reducing the non-adjacent student grant distance from 45km to 30km; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38505/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The eligibility criteria for student grants are reviewed annually by my Department and approved by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. All proposals made in relation to higher education expenditure, including student grants for the 2022/23 academic year, are considered in the context of the annual budgetary process. In Budget 2022, I reduced the qualifying distance criterion for students to qualify for the non-adjacent rate of grant from 45km to 30km, effective from the start of the 2022/23 academic year.

The adjacent rate of maintenance grant is payable in the case of students whose normal residence is 30km or less from the approved institution which he or she is attending and non-adjacent from 30km upwards.

Taking cognisant of the number of applicants in the previous academic year (21/22) the estimated cost for full year cost of reducing the non-adjacent student grant distance, from 45km to 30km in 2023 is in the region of €12.7m.