Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the guests in the Visitor's Gallery, namely Councillors Padraig Fallon and Brendan Barry and others. Ta fáilte rompu go Baile Átha Cliath. It is no Leitrim, but sure it will do.

I am delighted to speak about science week. It is really important that we put a focus on it and ensure that all of our young people have opportunities, if they wish, in the field of science. If we do that and if that is the focus of the Dáil, we need to look at how we can do it. One of the issues that was raised with me quite a bit when I was held the spokesperson role that Deputy McGettigan holds now was that of the basic instruments and infrastructure we have within our third level sector, neither of which is up to standard. Some of it is, but could soon not be. This has an impact on young people who are really talented in this area and who to build on their talents. The way they build on those talents a lot of the time is, unfortunately, that they emigrate and study at universities abroad. Of course, when you are studying, that can be part of it in order to bring that knowledge base back. If we want them to bring it back, however, we need to make sure our instruments and scientific infrastructure is up to scratch. I strongly believe that we need to ensure we actually have funding coming through for the third level sector in order to keep that at the base it is now and expand it. We have the talents, the people and the visions but we need to build on that.

Equally, if we are looking at our young people who may want to go into science, we need to look at the opportunities they have. One of the biggest issues is that many of our young people, including aspiring scientists, face an uphill battle when it comes to building a secure and good life in this State. Basic things their parents would have taken for granted are now difficult, sometimes impossible, to access.

Young people in final year of school may be thinking of what university to apply for. Unfortunately, many of them quickly realise that they do not have much, if any, choice in the matter. The outrageous cost and limited availability of student accommodation means they are forced to stay living with their parents and commute very long distances in order to access any type of third level course. That takes the decision-making out of it. That is a big issue.

We have student university accommodation that is low quality, insecure and extremely expensive. We are still waiting for the student accommodation strategy that was promised in 2024. When will that happen? We need to end the rip off for students. They need to have choice in this matter because they need to be able to study science if they so wish. That should be part of this conversation.

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