Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for coming in today, and I very much welcome his opening statement and focus on the four priorities. The statement provides us with great clarity, along with his Department.

There are matters I want to raise, the first of which, as many people have raised, is student accommodation. Just to personalise the situation a bit, I certainly have known students who have had to overnight in their cars, who face long commutes and are forced to travel home every weekend; all of which impacts their ability to succeed and to enjoy the social aspects of the university lifestyle as well. To that, the Minister identified a couple of areas he is focusing on. To dig into that just a little bit more, in respect of the supports for the TU, is the Minister looking at enabling any sort of bargaining framework in order that they can try and invest further, maybe in addition to what is coming from the Department?

Regarding digs, which certainly is a significant provider of accommodation, one of the issues is quality, which might be one of the reasons there are vacancies. Will the Minister look at any form of light regulation, such as random inspection, to provide more certainty in that marketplace?

The second area I want to mention is apprenticeships, which my colleagues have highlighted to a quite significant extent. I am delighted there is a plan under review there. I ask about the number of actual work placements and whether the Minister envisages that those will be increased. That has been one of the challenges. It is easier to increase the places in further education, but slower to actually increase the number of employers that provide them. What is the Minister’s strategy around that? I would welcome some detail on that in the overall strategy that is to come forward.

On the TU sector, I note the Department will progress with additional professorships. That will be very helpful in attracting the talent from overseas the Minister also mentioned. In association with that, I would like the Minister to look at the precariousness of people teaching in higher education and further education. It results in a high level of turnover. People do not have certainty, and an awful lot of people leave the sector because they are forced to, because they cannot make a living out of it. It is not so much they cannot make a living out of it but there is a lack of certainty in it. The person does not know if he or she is going to have a job next year. I would like to see if the Minister will do something on that.

Finally, the Minister mentioned expanding the space with regard to the medical and healthcare sector. Is he specifically looking at expanding places for dentistry and veterinary? I know many students who have gone overseas and have then got jobs and come back here. It would be great if they could actually stay here to do their studies.