Professor Vincent Cunnane:

The benefit of internationalisation at home is really positive as well for the downstream talent pool. It is a competitive market out there for international students. It is not that Ireland can just say it wants a certain number. We have to compete for that. One of the key things around competing is that we offer an integrated package, which is fees for the course and accommodation. That is what the parents of international students want. We cannot provide that integrated package. It goes back to accommodation. We believe we have reached a limit of what we can do. We cannot expand any more in terms of the number of international students we have because we cannot offer the integrated package in the context of accommodation.

There is a downstream negative as well. For the first time in many years, we are seeing incidents of racism increase. This is because of an assumption by a very limited number of people in society that students of different colours and backgrounds are taking accommodation away from Irish people. That is not the case. The numbers are very small, but the perception can be very damaging for students. Not only are we seeing exploitation in terms of scams and accommodation, but the levels of racism that our international students are subjected to are on the rise. If there was student accommodation that took away that perception, it would help.