Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of my colleagues in the Regional Group, including Deputy Berry, who is a retired commandant, and on my own behalf, we would like to be associated with the very positive comments about the joint task force's security operation yesterday.

The Government has built up expectations that South East Technological University, SETU, will meet the south-east region's need for university education principally by adding capacity and new programmes to halt the region's longstanding brain drain. This brain drain is a significant obstacle to the economic development of the region. Given that the last three programmes for Government, in 2011, 2016 and 2020, specifically prioritised development of higher education in the south east, it is surprising that no new teaching building has commenced in Waterford this millennium. When he laid out his capital plans for SETU recently, the Minister, Deputy Harris, failed to mention the long-awaited public private partnership, PPP, project, which has been announced and reannounced periodically since 2008. Is the higher education PPP bundle 2 dead?

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