Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I answered a question from another Deputy from County Kerry earlier regarding students from Kerry going to Cork for their university education. Of course, that will always happen but I am so proud we can stand here now, as I am sure the Deputy is as a Kerry Deputy, and say that Kerry is now a university county, Tralee is now a university town, and there is a real capacity to do more in Killarney as regards further and higher education, which is at the nub of his question. We have made huge progress on the educational offering in Kerry. I praise MTU, especially MTU Tralee staff, and the leadership of Kerry Education and Training Board, ETB, which has an exceptional team of people working extraordinarily hard, including our colleague, Councillor Jim Finucane, who chairs Kerry ETB with real determination, passion and dedication.

As part of an ambitious new phase of capital investment I launched early last year, I was very happy to be in a position to come to Killarney with the Deputy to announce that the site locally known as the Pretty Polly plant site at Killarney has been chosen as a further education and training, FET, college of the future and a major further education college. I know how important this is for access to education and, from talking to those in the tourism industry and hospitality sector there with the Deputy, to have a pipeline of people in terms of graduates and training programmes.

I am pleased to confirm to the Deputy that the proposal has moved to the next stage of development, which is the full, formal business case and complying with public spending codes. A workshop took place at the end of March with relevant ETB representatives, including Kerry ETB, to advise on how to complete the necessary business case templates and the like. I also met Kerry ETB more recently when I was in Kerry with the Deputy. Since then, SOLAS has worked closely with Kerry ETB during the development phase of its proposal. Kerry ETB is now working to finalise its preliminary case.

I do not have to tell the Deputy this is a very exciting project for Killarney and the wider Kerry region. The Pretty Polly site has not been in use for some time. The ambition is simple: to repurpose and transform it into a state-of-the-art campus that focuses on skills development in hospitality training, while also supporting renewable energy and sustainable green technologies. Kerry ETB has also been successful under the strategic infrastructure upgrade fund for two proposals, including refurbishment and upgrade of the Listowel campus and provision of additional accommodation at its Monavalley campus in Tralee, which I was also delighted to visit with the Deputy.

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