Third-level access for emigrants
Deputy Danny Healy-Rae objects to rules that make returning emigrants pay higher postgraduate fees if they were abroad for part of the last five years, and asks the Government to change them. After a row in the Chamber, the Minister for Education says the rules must apply uniformly to all EU citizens but will consider the individual case.
In recent times, the Government has made much ado about encouraging emigrants to come home and work in the teaching, nursing and social work professions. If such people have been out of the country for more than three of the past five years, they cannot access postgraduate courses without paying for them. A girl of whom I am aware left Killarney in 2014 at the age of 24. She came back last June and wishes to access a course in Trinity College Dublin which should cost €6,300 but, because she was away for three of the past five years, will cost her €11,600. She has spent 24 and a half years of her life in this country. Why is a limit being put on her such that she must be in the country for the past three years? Is this rule intended to apply to immigrants from other countries? It should not apply to people who were bred, born and reared in our country and who spent the most part of their lives here and will not even be able to access a SUSI grant.
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What is the Government going to do about it?
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That is rubbish. Immigrants from abroad do not have access to-----
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It is not rubbish. These are people who were bred, born and reared in Ireland, some of whom were born in Kerry. I ask the Government to get rid of that rule.
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Deputy Healy-Rae should resume his seat. Please do not bring the House into disrepute.
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Most of what Deputy Ó Snodaigh says is rubbish.
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There are restrictions on access to courses by persons who have lived outside the EU for a considerable period. The difficulty we face in arranging rules of access is that any such rule must apply to all EU citizens equally. The restriction that is in place has strictures which are uniformly applied. I will consider the case raised by Deputy Healy-Rae but there are difficulties in regard to people who have spent an extended period outside the country accessing third level because the rules must apply uniformly to all EU citizens.