Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I love coming to Louth because I think we are making real progress with the Louth and Meath Education and Training Board, LMETB. I want to praise Martin O’Brien, who is the CEO of LMETB, and others there. I thank Deputy O’Dowd for bringing me up the road to Drogheda so often. We now have plans to significantly expand Drogheda Institute of Further Education. I am very excited about this from an educational point of view, but also from a community and social cohesion point of view. There is the Guerin report, etc., that needs to be addressed. We also had the very significant opening of the Drogheda apprenticeship hub, which is an opportunity for 300 people to do apprenticeships in electrics and other areas in Drogheda. That will be major in terms of opportunities in the north east. The Deputy is entirely right to highlight that the next and crucial piece of the jigsaw is that we need a university in the north east.

See this speech in context