Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Cathasaigh for raising this question and for his ongoing engagement with me regarding South East Technological University and indeed the Waterford Crystal site. I hear a little mischief-making now and again. We are absolutely and fully committed to the Waterford Crystal site being purchased by South East Technological University. A huge amount of work has been undertaken by the university since the Deputy and I, and others, were there to announce the decision to acquire that site. I reassure the Deputy and the people of Waterford about that.

On 27 March, as the Deputy knows, my Department gave approval, subject to the required due diligence that has to be carried out, for South East Technological University to expand its presence in Waterford by agreeing to accept the vendor's final reduced asking price for a 20.3 acre portion of a 37 acre Waterford Crystal site. SETU is in the process of conducting that required due diligence on the site. Once that is completed to its satisfaction, it then goes to its governing authority for the formal proposal. Following those governance requirements, it then comes back to the Higher Education Authority and me.

We are excited about this for all the reasons the Deputy says. It is a significant milestone in the development of South East Technological University. Some in Waterford tried to say we would never get a university. We now have one. Some said we would never get the Waterford Crystal site. We now do. The purchase of that site does, and I think this is the nub of the Deputy's questions, provide significant opportunities for the development and creation of a real enterprise quarter in Waterford that will, of course, benefit the university, but in my view, the benefits will go well beyond that. It will provide an opportunity to collaborate with industry and research, to the benefit of the whole city, county and region.

The location of the site and the existing Cork Road campus will enable the university to consolidate much of its Waterford activities into this single city centre location. The purchase of the site also satisfies a number of wider local and regional objectives through the reusing and repurposing of a prominent brownfield site in the city. It brings that old site back into use. This will allow SETU to cater for future student growth and allow the university to be a driver of economic and social development. As the Deputy knows, the process of what goes on the site will need to come from the governing authority of the university. We are not in the business of acquiring sites to leave them idle. Once this is fully acquired, we will be eager to make progress on that.

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