Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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432. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the case of a person (details supplied) has been brought to her attention; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60270/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Under my Department's Free Fees Initiative, the State pays tuition fees, exclusive of the student contribution, 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 inter-alia criteria of the scheme including the separate residency and nationality/citizenship requirements in their own right. 

In order to meet the residency criteria a student must have been ordinarily resident in an EU/EEA/Swiss/UK state for at least three of the five years preceding their entry to an approved third level course. The three out of five year rule takes cognizance of students who wish to take time out to travel or work abroad. Such students can still meet the residency requirement if they have not been outside the jurisdictions referenced above for more than two of the previous five years.

The assessment of eligibility under the Free Fees Initiative in individual cases is a matter for each institution to determine within the terms of the scheme and it is not possible for my Department to advise on the determinations made by individual institutions.

Where a student requires guidance on the determination of eligibility for free fees it is necessary that a student engage with the fees office of the institution attended. Direct engagement will offer students an opportunity to understand the determination of the institution and provide a basis for the student to provide additional information to the institution, as appropriate, to assist in the institution in determining a student's eligibility.

Having followed the appropriate procedures with the institution, if a student is not satisfied that a higher education institution has appropriately applied the free fees criterion or the institution's own fee determination procedures correctly, it is open to them to contact the Office of the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman provides an impartial, independent and free dispute resolution service.