Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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47. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will consider altering the residency rule for the student grant scheme to enable a person to qualify for the grant is they can show that they have been resident in the State for at least two years out of the five-year period ending on the day before their course starts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23286/24]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The requirement for three out of the past five years takes cognisance of and provides a generous degree of flexibility for students who may wish to take time out to travel or work outside the State. These students can still meet the residency requirement if they have not been outside the State for more than two of the previous five years.

The residency requirements of the Student Grant Scheme seek to ensure that those applying for a grant assistance will have a more established linkage with and integration into the State, a concept recognised in EU law and accepted across the EU.

Under Article 32 of the Student Grant Scheme there is provision for a review of eligibility for students who did not meet the residency requirement at the commencement of their studies to have their eligibility for grant assistance reviewed if they meet the residency requirement during the course of their studies.

Any amendments or extension to the student grant legislation would have financial implications and would have to be considered in the context of overall budgetary constraints and competing demands on available funding.