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

That is good. I will finish on a question on accommodation. It is obviously something that keeps coming up for students from the North and their ability to come to the South, together with a whole range of other issues. This is something that is coming up more. When I spoke to a university in the North, it said a reason it saw more students coming to that university was that it was cheaper to live in the North. There are two things I would like to ask on that. On the strategy for student accommodation, does the Department have a date as to when that would be published? I know there has been talk about that for some time. The Department’s opening statement, states that:

The refurbishment of vacant properties for student accommodation will have a significant impact in the regions and will further our balanced regional development agenda.

Refurbishment of vacant commercial property will also be considered in addition to repurposing vacant properties on HEI land.

The reason I am interested in that is that I have contacted many of the universities. Not all of them have come back to me but many of the universities, after that announcement had been made, came back to say they did not have vacant buildings available for student accommodation purposes. I raised that with the Minister at the time and I have put in a freedom of information, FOI, request. It does not seem there has been that sort of correspondence with the universities on that. On commercial property, is that something that is definite or is it something that could be looked at?

On the technological universities, TUs, the Department’s opening statement states that funding of € 1 million was approved in November 2022 to assist the TUs in developing a student accommodation programme. Programmes do not house people, unfortunately. I understand the Department has to have assessments and all of that kind of thing done. There has been an understanding, a thought process or a belief, that there would be the ability at some point for TUs to borrow. My understanding is that is not something that is currently being progressed or considered and that a move towards public private partnerships will be looked at, especially given the fact there was an announcement on funding for student accommodation in the budget. I am aware of the €400 million from the European Investment Bank, EIB, and all of that but that involves borrowing and TUs cannot borrow. What exactly is the plan there? Is it a situation where that €400 million is good where we have a programme? We are doing an assessment, which I think is fantastic, but the concern for parents who are looking to send their children to the Atlantic Technological University, ATU, in Letterkenny is around what the courses their children want to do will mean for them for next year.