Mr. Jimmy Deenihan:

If we were allowed to borrow, we could at least start the process. There is always an opportunity for investment. I do not know what the situation was in Trinity, but the provision of accommodation on site at UCD was tax driven. Something like that could be considered. Perhaps such an approach was abused in the past in terms of hotels and the like, but we must consider innovative ways of providing student accommodation on campus.

There is a mix of private and public sector student accommodation on campus. Some of the committee members may have benefited from on-campus student accommodation in the past. It creates a special culture on a campus and a special connection with it. I attended the then National College of Physical Education, NCPE, when it opened in 1973 on the campus of the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick. There were just a few buildings there. I have visited it since, including the concert hall a few weeks ago. We are discussing accommodation in MTU, and I am struck by what having accommodation there means and why so many people want to go there. TUs will be competing with traditional universities that have accommodation on-site. We have to have that choice for parents who want to send their children to on-site accommodation. Based on experience and how matters work, if we were allowed to borrow just for accommodation, it would help. I am sure that many of the great buildings at UCC were built thanks to the European Investment Bank or the like.