Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is a bit different from what I understood and many people would have understood from the original announcement of this policy. First, it was not clear that the Minister was talking about commercial units as well. It was not clear that he was only talking about technological universities. My understanding from the committee meeting we had was that it applied to the university sector in general and the Minister had stated that the universities had requested this. I submitted parliamentary questions and I even submitted a freedom of information request but I have not been able to find records of the universities requesting this. I had also done research on how many vacant properties were available on campus. All I could find was that it would add 80 beds. It was not clear that the Minister was talking about commercial properties. Has he just now decided to add to it because the reality is this is not something that exists on university campuses? I would be interested in the Minister's view on that.

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