Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I heard what the Minister said about "grubby behaviour". We will not have the debate now but it is my understanding that this is as much about a failure of co-ordination between Government Departments as anything else. As I said, we will not have the debate now but I will speak to the Minister about it again. I recognise that a lot of good work has been done by the students union and by the ATU itself in trying to get host families for students, and a colleague of mine, Councillor Marie Casserly, is helping to link up families and students. As the Minister said, we need to look at the longer term. The president of the ATU in Sligo has said that she welcomes the task force set up to look at ways that the ATU can borrow money to build its own purpose-built accommodation.

We need to see a real sense of urgency about this because we know all of this takes time. What we do not want this time next year, is for Deputy Harris as Minister, and maybe two years down the line some other Minister or perhaps even Deputy Harris, to still be answering questions about the lack of availability of student accommodation.

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