Ms Josephine Feehily:

I agree. My main contribution in response to the question from Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan was around the social and affordability piece. Whatever the solution is, it must be affordable.

TUS depends entirely on the private sector. We are extremely worried about the coming autumn because the private sector that would have provided accommodation in the past is now occupied and unlikely to become unoccupied by September. The accommodation is, unfortunately, now largely occupied by people from Ukraine. We are extremely concerned about where we will find capacity. As it happens, the governing body discussed the issue yesterday at the behest of the students' union. We have agreed to help with a marketing campaign to encourage the rent-a-room scheme and so on. We will encourage individuals who have a spare room to provide more traditional forms of student accommodation. It is going to be a big problem in the immediate term.

In the longer term, of course we should talk and share ideas. The loosening of borrowing is a part of that. The kind of ideas that Dr. Prendergast mentioned about a particular standard for student accommodation would be very interesting to discuss and to see where the Government would sit on funding something of a different standard for students. I do not know the answer. Dr. Prendergast mentioned the idea and that was the first time I heard of it. I had not thought of it and I need to think about it. The affordability piece is the main line from the student body in TUS.