Third-level student fees for non-Resident

Doltanian

Bit of an unusual one here; but hopefully someone could shed some light on it for me. I basically need to find out if my cousin could avail of a free Irish third level education.

My cousin is 15 years old and holds dual Irish/American Citizenship, she was was born in Ireland but got US Citizenship from her Irish Mother who has Dual Irish & US Citizenship. She lived all her life in Ireland until 2013 and spent another few months here in 2015 before going back to the US again.

Anyway to begin with my cousin attended National School here in Ireland up until the end of 4th Class and she and the family moved back to the United States due to the parents work commitments in the US. She completed 6 years of Primary education here in Ireland up until 4th class.

In 2015, my cousin and her mother (my aunt) returned to Ireland and she started secondary school aged 13 going into first year, the main reason for returning was to give the Child an Irish education however the family situation changed in the meantime, and due to Ireland's 3rd world broadband my aunt was unable to work from home properly so once again they returned to California. And they have been living there since.

The 15 year old child herself wants to return and go to college in Ireland as most of her childhood friends are here. The mother is considering allowing her come back to go to University or College here when she turns 18 in 2020 and she would be planning to enroll in third level in Autumn 2020. The main reason for this is the enormous cost of private education in the US, circa. $50,000 per year which is just too much as her mother is now divorced from the father. Whereas in Ireland Registration fee's are capped at €3,000, quiete reasonable by US standards for a respectable University e.g. University College Cork.

By my reading of this

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/education/third_level_education/fees_and_supports_for_third_level_education/fees.html#l00630

It would seem as if my cousin will not qualify for free education capped at €3,000 registration fees and would go under the EU Fees but really we are not sure.

If anyone could shed light on this I'd be grateful :-)

Anita Blow

Your cousin would qualify for non-resident EU fees which can be around 6000-9000 euro. To qualify for the free fees initiative she would have had to live continuously within the state for 3 of the 5 years preceding her application to university here.