Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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804. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of students who have applied for additional scholarships for underrepresented and disadvantaged students announced on 29 July 2022; the number of successful applicants who have received funding under this scheme across all strands; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54160/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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My Department is committed to the continued roll-out of supports and targeted initiatives to tackle educational disadvantage and support equity of access, participation and success in both further and higher education.  

The new National Access Plan: Strategic Action Plan for Equity, Participation and Success in Higher Education, 2022-02028, was launched on 31st August 2022. This new plan aims to support inclusion and diversity in our student body, address the wider struggles and challenges for students, and deliver sustainable progress. It recognises the needs of vulnerable learners, the most marginalised and those with special and additional needs.

PATH is the main funding stream that supports the implementation of the National Access Plan (NAP).

The applicant deadline for 2022/23 was Oct 20^thand based on figures submitted to us by the IUA, they received 2,895 total applications.

Below is a breakdown per cluster.

I have attached a breakdown of the number of bursary holders by cluster and a breakdown of bursaries by Tier.

As of June 2022, which is the latest data available to us, Table 1shows that there are a total of 1333 live bursaries.

Table 2shows a breakdown of the live bursaries across the three tiers, tier 2 and 3 were introduced last year for the first time.

Overall, there were 721 active tier 1, 120 active tier 2, and 492 active tier 3 bursaries allocated as at June 2022.