Technological Universities
Dail Éireann — 2024-06-25
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Mairéad Farrell (SF), Galway West

What I understand from what the Minister is saying is that TU proposals are coming in at the moment and there may be potential delivery in quarter 1 of 2025 or that will be when a decision will be made. I raised this matter earlier this year with the previous Minister, who is now Taoiseach, and he indicated to me there would be a change in the initial approach. Rather than having institutions move off-balance sheet by being deemed autonomous public sector bodies like other universities they would instead be allowed to develop housing through public-private partnerships, PPPs. As the Minister knows, the value of PPPs has been questioned. It seemed that any kind of review to allow TUs to progress to borrow off-balance sheet was not happening. Is the Minister saying that borrowing is still being considered as a viable option for TUs and if so, what stage of the process are we at in getting that permission?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2024-06-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:53:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2024-06-25