Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh:

I thank the Chairman and Dr. Ryan and as Dr. Ryan has said this is not an untypical student response. I also encourage students to come forward. Sometimes they find it difficult to put their hands up and ask for help. For those either tuning in or if members come across students who need assistance, please let us know. We are there, first and foremost, for our students.

Second, we are looking at an induction or reorientation for second years. As Dr. Ryan has mentioned, the delayed start of the first year group will allow us to spend more time on the second and third year students, that is, those who are returning to college, earlier in September all going well. The reorientation piece will be helpful to us in that regard.

On accommodation, it is worth noting that only 10% of the housing stock for students is on-campus university or third level institution accommodation. There is a significant portion therefore that is off campus and a need for us to grow on-campus accommodation as a consequence. We prioritise first years and international students for the most part on campus. Again, we may be able to do this on a phased basis and accommodate other students for an early part of September, particularly international students. We are looking at that in the context of accommodating incoming international students. The phased timing and approach would be helpful, because the later years will start earlier in September and the first years will start on the last Monday in September.

That will allow for the TLC to which the Chairman referred.

Returning to my first point, if anyone sees students who need help, please let us know because we want to help them when we can. There is an infrastructure on campus. There are really good colleagues who work with us and with our students in order to help them through the university experience. Part of that is informed and shaped by Covid. We are very anxious to help students where we can.

The date of 19 July is critical because there will be further guidelines available to us. That will allow us to plan ahead but also it allows students to plan for their own accommodations and plans for September. We are really pleased that the Department has identified 19 July and is encouraging that date because it is really critical for our planning and for our students.