Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will not be surprised to see me coming in on this. He rightly referenced that Waterford has built on-campus student accommodation. There has been welcome Government interventions on student accommodation, particularly in the case of technological universities, which will be allowed to borrow in order to fund student accommodation for the first time. However, it means we are a little behind. The pipeline the Minister referenced consists wholly of universities that are in train. In the context of South East Technological University, and, I am sure, ATU and Technological University of the Shannon, we want to see increased numbers of students coming on campus. To allow that to happen, which we need to increase the amount of accommodation available. In my constituency, constructing purpose-built accommodation and expanding the footprint into the campus will be pivotal.

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