Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Chairman, we are in the business of taking down barriers and working very closely and collaboratively with the new Technological University, with the chair of the governing authority and with the President, Professor Veronica Campbell. There is a great leadership team and governing authority now in place which really hit the ground running in their formal launch on Monday. I do not mean this in a flippant way but we are not in the business of buying sites and using taxpayers' money for sites for them to sit idle. We are in the business of purchasing sites and expanding footprints because we buy into the argument and into the compelling vision that there needs to be a modern fit-for-purpose campus in Wexford. I was really impressed when I visited the campus in Wexford with the Chairman and Senator Byrne and with what is going on there. I was not impressed with the facilities that people have to work and learn in. I met some very inspiring students there particularly around the whole area of lifelong learning, people who told me very bluntly and very clearly that they would not have been in higher education were it not for being able to go to the Wexford campus. We now just need to provide them with a fit-for-purpose campus.

The Chair is also right to indicate it is always good to be truthful in this. The site was secured and then we get on to the planning etc. These are processes that take time but these will be processes that we will work with the Technological University to progress as a priority. These are autonomous institutions, as they remind me, and the governing authority sets out its own strategic priorities. We will see an expansion in Waterford and I am clear on that. There are plans for Carlow and there are plans for Wexford too. Securing and developing the new site and building a modern fit-for-purpose campus on the site are shared priorities of the Government and of the Technological University.