Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join the Deputy Leader in wishing colleagues a very good summer holiday and time for important recreation so as to be able to come back with renewed vigour in the next term. I wish the staff of this House, led by Mr. Groves and Ms Doody and who are excellent and so supportive of us all, a good summer holiday. I also wish the ushers of the House a good holiday. They make life around the Houses so easy, and we do appreciate that.

In the context of wishing people a nice summer, it is worth mentioning that the summer always throws up tragedies such as drownings and various kinds of accidents. I appeal to people to be careful to swim in designated areas and to be careful in other respects over the summer. I appeal to local authorities to ensure the requisite staff are in place to give warnings, etc. It is a tragic reality that we confront tragedies every year, as in my community a couple of years ago.

Since we are entering the summer and a new academic year thereafter, I want the Deputy Leader to arrange early in the new term a debate on student accommodation. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, is very committed in this area and doing a lot of work, but we need to know where it is at. As a joint venture on every college campus, there should be accommodation, and it should be a lot cheaper than it is. This can be achieved through building using long-term loans. There is money available for this kind of thing. Every campus should have student accommodation. There are many educational reasons for this. What parents are paying to accommodate their children in Dublin and on campuses around the country is just criminal. It is reducing access to education and leaving many students with no option but to commute, meaning they lose out on the holistic experience of university. This needs to be addressed in a radical way. There are many sources of funding that could be explored. It should be done as a priority. I realise there is work afoot but it should be accelerated. Will the Deputy Leader consider making a debate on this one of our first items when we come back? It will be really seasonal. We are all negligent in that we should have been addressing this matter, although I did refer to it a few times.