Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to return to a question I asked the Taoiseach back in March. The Government has built up expectations that South East Technological University, SETU, will meet the south-east region's need for a university by adding capacity and new programmes to halt the region's long-standing brain drain. The last three programmes for Government in 2011, 2016 and 2020 specifically prioritised the development of higher education in the south east.

It is more than surprising, therefore, that no new teaching buildings have been commenced in Waterford this millennium, let alone during this Dáil term. When laying out his capital plans for SETU recently, the Minister, Deputy Harris failed to mention the long-promised engineering build PPP. This is most surprising considering the 15 years of intermittent announcements since 2008 concerning this project. The Minister has spent recent months on a veritable Santa Claus tour, doling out hundreds of millions of euro to the national university sector, but no buildings to SETU. Is the higher education PPP bundle 2 that is supposed to deliver the 15-year promised engineering build to Waterford dead in the water. If it is not, when will it be approved?

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