The Government is determined to remove as many barriers to education as possible, the Minister for Higher Education has said. 

It follows the announcement that financial aid will now be extended to part-time students at third-level - the first time any grant has been provided for part-time education under the Student Support Act 2011.

62 undergraduate courses will be covered by the scheme, with an income threshold of €55,000 per year. 

Minister Patrick O'Donovan said the move has been a long held ambition of the Government. 

“We need to ensure that our skillset and our skills base is well maintained, that people are given the opportunity to go back to education,” he said. 

“That barriers are as reduced as we can [get them] and that we really direct the funding to those that need it most.”

Minister O’Donovan said reform to financial supports for students is an important way to help more people study at third-level. 

“It’s been an ambition of mine and it’s been an ambition of my predecessor, the now Taoiseach, to make sure that we reduce as many barriers as possible to people accessing third-level education,” he said. 

“You can do that through a range of ways, you can do it through the advent of the technology at university or you can bring third-level education even closer to people by allowing them the financial support to gain access to part-time courses.” 

In 2022/23, there were 256,785 students in Ireland. 

Main image: Students at Trinity College, Dublin. Image: Mark Henderson / Alamy