Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last week a disturbing article appeared in our local newspaper regarding South East Technological University, SETU. The article discusses a conversation that took place at a meeting of Wexford County Council between the now retired chief executive and a local councillor, in which it was alleged that SETU and the Department of higher education are dragging their heels. I am a graduate of what is now South East Technological University. We have a very limiting campus whereby we cannot expand and certainly not into STEM courses. We do have more than 1,100 students on the campus. We very much look forward to a new state-of-the-art campus, which the Minister has heavily endorsed. We also have devolved Departments of environment and agriculture in Wexford. I see the future of education in Wexford as very much in STEM courses when the new campus is brought there.

I very much hope that what is alleged in the article is not true for the families who are contacting me about whether their children will be able to start their third-level education in a Wexford campus of SETU. They are looking for timelines; they are not looking for stories that will result in non-delivery. This is the big issue for people. Stories and photo opportunities are all well and good. Headlines for councillors, chief executives, TDs and Ministers are all very good but delivery is what is key. It is paramount that we understand that Wexford had been left behind prior to and until the setting up of SETU. I could not have furthered my education were not for the campus in Wexford of the then Carlow Institute of Technology. I undertook my course at night time. I could not have done it in any other way. As a result I have a law degree. I am very proud of this but there are many parents who envisage not being able to send their children to third-level education because of the cost-of-living increases they are experiencing, the exponential cost of accommodation they are experiencing and what they expect to pay for accommodation in Dublin, Galway and Limerick and other university cities. It is paramount to the people of Wexford and the surrounding south east counties that we get our state-of-the-art campus and that it encompasses STEM courses as well as utilising the Departments that are devolved in Wexford. A huge expansion of Rosslare Europort is ongoing. We have offshore wind development. The campus and what we foresee in education will only complement this. This is what we need to plan for and what we need to see. I ask the Minister whether these allegations are correct and why he is dragging his heels.

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