Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is fine. It is interesting to hear about the National Maritime College, which is a fantastic college.

My question stems from the previous question from Deputy Ó Cathasaigh. Last week, we had a conversation with the Minister, Deputy Harris, in regard to technological universities and what their accommodation situation looks like going forward.

I am glad that that the Minister of State is aware of the difference between on-balance sheet and off-balance sheet. That is really welcome but we were discussing whether they can and will borrow. From what I understand, from speaking to the technological universities and the broader sector, they thought it would be going down the route of borrowing off-balance sheet. From what I understand from what the Minister said last week, that is not being considered at this poin and leaves two options. First, the Department may fund it 100%, but obviously that was not part of this year’s budget. I would find it hard to believe that the funding will suddenly appear overnight, although who knows? The second option is the PPPs. Are we realistically looking for PPPs for student accommodation for technological universities? I am very concerned by the cost and unaffordability of accommodation for students, and of course, with PPPs, that would continue. It is irresponsible that we are not hearing directly from the Minister on this, but I am obviously very thankful that the Minister of State has made it to this committee meeting. Is that the route we will be going down?

I also have a comment on the figures the Minister of State mentioned on the amount of purpose-built student accommodation. I did not get the chance to ask the Minister about this last week. Is there a breakdown on what is owned by vulture funds and what is not? I have been doing a piece of work on that and have been trying to find that out myself. It is a huge amount of work to try to get all that information. I have put together some kind of database, but I would like to think that the Minister would like to prioritise that kind of information through the Department as well.