Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I genuinely do not think I was there. I am open to correction if I was but I do not have a recollection of it. There are two separate issues here. Like all universities, UCC had to prioritise the projects it wanted to submit under the HESIF. It put forward two: the business school and the Kane Building. It got the allocation for both and those projects moved forward.

The broader question the Deputy asked is very valid. Yes, I do have a concern that we are not training enough dentists in Ireland. It is not just that I have a concern; it is also a concern of the Department of Health and the HSE. As the Deputy will know, we undertook an expression of interest process with the Higher Education Authority. We asked universities to let us know what they could do in a range of priority healthcare disciplines and, coincidentally, in veterinary medicine. Dentistry was one of the areas in which options came back. I am happy to share details with the Deputy in a note but a number of options for dentistry came back as part of that expression of interest process. I believe there were three options: one for a new programme and two for the expansion of existing programmes. Along with the general expansion of both healthcare and veterinary medicine, the Ministers for Health, agriculture and I are pursuing these positions along with the Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform as part of the review of capital ceilings currently under way.

See this speech in context