Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will comment on the student accommodation and will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, to comment on the apprenticeship issue. I will level with the Deputy here and I am sure he will remind me of these comments in the future. I do not think our policy on student accommodation is working. I do not think it is robust enough and the State does not have enough levers to pull. I am frequently asked about what I am going to do to support particular students. I look at the legal options available to me and they are often not there.

I believe we need to devise a funding model that enables particularly our institutes of technology, now to be our technological universities, to build student accommodation. Technological University Dublin, the largest higher education institution in the country, is unable to build student accommodation. We will shortly discuss the Munster technological university in the Deputy's neck of the woods, which is in a similar situation. We will continue to open technological universities.

While I am not the Minister for housing, this is a housing challenge as much as an education challenge. Students are competing with families with two or three children for the same house. I do not think the strategy between the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and my Department is adequate. I will be working with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to come up with a better plan. It must involve, as part of the building of technological universities, the building of purpose-built institution-owned student accommodation.

I would genuinely be interested in working with the Deputy and this committee on it. I could say we are going to get all our colleges to give refunds to students who are in college-owned accommodation. They largely do so when issues arise, but that does not affect most of the students. I would be very happy to have a session on this with the committee and would welcome members' ideas. The challenge is to find a funding mechanism that we can get through the whole of Government.