Laura Harmon (Labour)

The Minister is very welcome and I look forward to working constructively with him and the committee over the coming years.

I will start with student housing. I was president of the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, ten years ago and student housing was an issue then. The scale of the issue has increased tenfold since then. This is a symptom and consequence of the wider housing crisis. There needs to be joined-up thinking between the Minister's Department and the Department of housing. It is concerning the student housing strategy was promised in quarter 2 of this year, in the response to a parliamentary question, and now the Minister is saying it will be the end of the year. Will the Minister give a guarantee today that strategy will be in place before the end of the year? I engage a lot with students' unions and student representatives. I met representatives of UCC Students Union on Friday, for example and they highlighted the lack of purpose-built student accommodation in Cork that is owned by institutions. Only 18% of student accommodation in Cork is publicly owned, compared with 44% in Dublin, 36% in Galway and 56% in Limerick. These figures are concerning, in general. They are 2023 figures so I acknowledge they may have changed somewhat since then.

In regard to digs, protection of the rights of students living in digs is an area that needs more emphasis given that more students are having to rely on digs and the use of the rent-a-room relief scheme in recent years because of the student housing shortage.

In terms of technological universities, I know their capacity to borrow and build their own accommodation themselves is a concern for them. I just attended a briefing by the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, and it is always apparent to me that education in general is connected, be it from early years, primary, secondary, tertiary or fourth level. There is a connection in general and we are underspending as a whole in Ireland in terms of OECD average spend on education. Something that struck me was that, 20% of the population has low literacy levels and the adult education system, which often operates out of further education or third level, has a huge impact on improving those literacy rates and that often has an intergenerational knock-on effect. More investment in that will be key.

It is great to hear the emphasis the Minister is putting on research and innovation. It is an area that has been lacking in recent years and is a significant part of the Minister's brief. I welcome the Minister's comments about attracting talent from overseas and from the US to Ireland. However, it is important we heed the concerns of the likes of the Irish Federation of University Teachers, who are telling us that a lot of the staff in the sector already have precarious working conditions and pay. The funding deficit in our universities, which I know there have been attempts to close, needs to be looked at in the upcoming budget. Will the Minister comment on those questions and remarks?