Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. Failed Government policies have left universities in Cork with no capacity for innovation and research beyond what they already have. UCC and Munster Technological University, MTU, do unbelievable work in research and development. At a time when we should be funding them to do more and creating more capacity, the Government has not invested enough in them.

Students cannot think beyond next week because they are worried about accommodation, the cost of living and their plans for the future. Many of them plan to emigrate as soon as they graduate. When we look around the world, there is no doubt that we can see significant research undertaken in other countries by Irish graduates - people living all over the world who are doing fabulous work but would have loved to have stayed at home. Government policy left them with no other choice. The crisis in housing has forced many to leave our shores. Instead of attracting top academics, this Government is exporting them.

Alongside this, secondary school students in my constituency have to travel across the city to attend either of the university campuses. The reason is that there is no campus on the north side of the city. It is very disappointing because I have met with UCC and MTU a number of times and raised the issue of having a north side campus, be it for research and development, apprenticeships or medicine. There is a great saying "If you can't see it, you can't be it", which is why it is vital we see a north side campus either for UCC or MTU, or both. We want our students to reach their full potential. North side students lose out at the first hurdle when it comes to accessing third-level education as easily as possible. The links between schools and universities are not strong enough. A campus on the north side would build a stronger link. Delivering that needs to be a priority for the Minister.

A constituent contacted me about his citizen science project. He applied for funding and was rejected. I asked a number of parliamentary questions to find out where he could find funding or how he could go about improving the likelihood of his project accessing funding and I got no real answer. I could see the merit in his ideas but many people give up at this stage. Will the Minister consider a mentorship research programme for innovation to help people to get funding and find out where to go for funding, as is the case with local enterprise offices? I ask the Minister to seriously consider a campus for the north side of Cork and a mentoring programme for research and innovation.

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