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

What the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, wants at this stage is a date. The Minister mentioned it would be at some stage in 2024. I appreciate he is new in the role but this is something that was due to be published this year. When will it be published?

The Minister mentioned the student accommodation policy. I remember when it was launched. There was a massive hullabaloo about it. It was seen as this great thing, but when you actually looked at it, it was simply existing policy rehashed. There was a huge hullabaloo about the refurbishment grant that, on closer inspection and from contacting all the universities, apparently could not be used by anyone. I have not heard much talk about that grant since. We have seen that the technological universities still seem to be in some kind of limbo with regard to whether they can borrow to invest in student accommodation. I appreciate we will discuss that later.

There is clearly a lot of work to be done. I appreciate the Minister is new in the role. I am taking it on face value that he wants to get work done on this, but when will we see this strategy? Can we get a date for when it will be published? As I said, students are asking about this and waiting for this.

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