Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is no list as such but we are doing a more in-depth dive into the data now. I think it can be for a variety of reasons, be they personal, health or cost. As a Government, we need to better understand the reasons but also recognise that sometimes people will choose to change and move to different courses. It is also important to bear this in mind when trying to improve a tertiary education system.

To address Deputy Boyd Barrett's point, rents were also often kept down in universities because we extended the rent pressure zones to our universities. That has been of significant assistance in keeping rents a lot lower than they would have actually been. Sometimes when the Deputy talks about investment in universities, one would swear the investment is going in the wrong direction. Last year, our universities got permission to be able to permanently recruit 1,500 more staff. Last year was the first in many years where we saw an improvement in the student:staff ratio. They have €60 million more next year to build on that.

Regarding student accommodation, I am meeting USI next week. We have projects under way in DCU, Maynooth, University of Limerick and the University of Galway. I want to work with UCD and Trinity to get them over the line and will publish a new student accommodation strategy by the end of the year.

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