Who is the HEAR access route for?

To meet this criteria your family income falls on or below the HEAR Income Limit.

Add €4,785 to the total income for every sibling/parent enrolled in a full-time college, university or Post Leaving Certificate further education course. 

*A dependent includes:

• A sibling under the age of 16 years on 1 October 2024.
• A sibling over the age of 16 years on 1 October 2024  who is either: attending post primary education.
• Attending a full-time course in FET or higher education.
• Medically certified as permanently unfit for work.
• A parent attending a full-time course in FET or higher education

Please Note: HEAR requires evidence of a full year’s income for 2023 (i.e. 52 weeks). Some applicants depending on their parent(s)’/guardian(s)’ circumstances in 2023 may need to submit Revenue documents and/or evidence of other income as well as evidence of DSP income. Your guardian may not necessarily be your legal guardian, but refers to who you lived with and contributed to the household income in 2023. If you have indicated income from both parents you must submit documents detailing both their incomes. Please go to the Applicant Checklist (click here to get there) for more information about which documents are the right ones for you to submit.

To meet this Indicator, you or your family have to have medical card/ GP visit card that was in date on 31 December 2024.

In order to assess your application, HEAR seeks permission to contact the HSE directly to verify that you or your parent(s) or guardian(s) have a medical card or a GP visit card that is in date on 31 December 2024. You can supply us with the information for yourself or your parent(s)/ guardian(s).

If you have a medical card in your own name, you should enter your own PPS number in Section 3 of the HEAR online application form. If you do not have a medical card/ GP visit card in your own name but your parent/ guardian does, you should enter their name, date of birth and PPS number in Section 3 of the HEAR online application form. Applicants meeting Indicator 2 must meet a combination of 2 other indicators as listed below:

• INDICATOR 1 plus 2 plus 4
• INDICATOR 1 plus 2 plus 5
• INDICATOR 1 plus 2 plus 6

Social Welfare payments are broadly divided into three types: Contributory payments are based on your Pay-Related Social Insurance (PRSI) record. Whether you qualify for a payment depends on having a certain number of PRSI contributions. These types of payments are commonly referred to as Social Insurance payments. Non-contributory payments require you to satisfy a means-test and be an ongoing resident in the State. These types of payments are commonly referred to as Social Assistance payments. Payments and benefits such as Child Benefit and Free Travel do not depend on PRSI contributions or means. Only means-tested social assistance payments count as a HEAR indicator.

The most common means-tested social assistance payments are:

• Carer’s Allowance
• Disability Allowance
• Working Family Payment (WFP) (formerly know as Family Income Support, FIS)
• Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA)
• One-Parent Family Payment (OFP)
• State Pension (Non-Contributory)

Other acceptable means-tested social assistance payments are:

• Back to Work Enterprise Allowance – Self-employed year 2-4
• Back to Work PAYE work
• Deserted Wife’s Allowance
• Guardian’s Payment (Non-Contributory)
• Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment
• Part-Time Job Incentive Scheme
• Pre-Retirement Allowance (PRETA)
• Prisoner’s Wife Allowance
• Blind Pension
• Rent Allowance
• Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA)2
• Widow’s or Widower’s (Non-Contributory) Pension

Applicants meeting Indicator 3 must meet a combination of 2 other indicators as listed below:

• INDICATOR 1 plus 3 plus 4
• NDICATOR 1 plus 3 plus 5
• INDICATOR 1 plus 3 plus 6

A socio-economic group (SEG) is a measure of your social background based on your parents’ or guardian’s occupation and employment status. The measure is used by the Central Statistics Office to analyse the social background of the Irish population. Research clearly shows that participation in higher education is not evenly spread across the socio-economic groups. Children of higher professionals, employers, managers, lower professionals, skilled manual workers and farmers are more likely to go on to college than the children of non-manual, semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers. The HEAR scheme is designed to increase the number of students from these under-represented socio-economic groups in third level education.

SEG is coded by an expert company. The SEG is calculated by the responses given in the online HEAR application form to Question 6.

• 6.1 Parent’s/ Guardian’s employment status
• 6.2 Parent’s/ Guardian’s Type of Employment
• 6.3 Parent’s/ Guardian’s Main Job Title

Applicants meeting Indicator 4 must meet a combination of 2 other indicators as listed below:

• INDICATOR 1 plus 2 plus 4
• INDICATOR 1 plus 3 plus 4
• INDICATOR 1 plus 4 plus 5
• INDICATOR 1 plus 4 plus 6 

Delivering Equality of Opportunity In Schools (DEIS) is an initiative of the Department of Education and Skills aimed at lessening educational disadvantage and bringing about social inclusion in primary and second level education. Traditionally, few students from these schools go on to third level education. Also, children from DEIS schools tend to leave school earlier and do less well academically than students from other schools. Further information on DEIS, including a listing of all DEIS schools, is available on the DES website: www.education.ie.

You must have completed five years in a secondary school that takes part in the DEIS scheme in order to meet this indicator.

The list of schools on the online application includes every second level DEIS school in the country listed as the official school name. HEAR can only assess on the information provided on the online application.

If you attended more than one second level school, you are asked on the online application to enter details of all schools.

Applicants Indicator 5 must meet a combination of 2 other indicators as listed below: 

• INDICATOR 1 plus 2 plus 5
• INDICATOR 1 plus 3 plus 5
• INDICATOR 1 plus 4 plus 5
• INDICATOR 1 plus 5 plus 6 

There is very strong international evidence that living in a disadvantaged area can negatively affect educational attainment and progression to higher education.

When you apply to HEAR, your address is checked against an index and you are given a score that indicates how disadvantaged your neighbourhood is. To meet this indicator, you must live in an area that is disadvantaged, very disadvantaged or extremely disadvantaged.

HEAR uses information from a deprivation index of relative affluence or disadvantage. The index is based on information gathered in the 2022 Census. The country is divided up into small areas and each area is assigned an average score ranging from extremely disadvantaged up to very affluent. If you are interested in finding out more information about this indicator, please contact your local HEI. To check the classification of your address, please click here to access the Area Deprivation User Guide is prepared by Pobal.

Applicants meeting Indicator 6 must meet a combination of 2 other indicators as listed below:

• INDICATOR 1 plus 2 plus 6
• INDICATOR 1 plus 3 plus 6
• INDICATOR 1 plus 4 plus 6
• INDICATOR 1 plus 5 plus 6