Technological Universities
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-30
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Emer Higgins (FG), Dublin Mid-West

I thank the Senator for being such a passionate advocate for this. It is really important that our politicians are champions of key local issues. This is a key local issue for his area, not only for the people he represents in Wexford but also for the region as a whole. I fully accept the Senator's point in relation to the census figures he cited earlier. According to the 2022 census, 37% of people in Wexford have third level degrees, which is substantially below the 46% average across Ireland. The second point the Senator made, which is particularly interesting, was that many of those people then go on to live in Dublin or somewhere else. It is important that we are investing in our educational facilities in areas like Wexford. It is also important that we continue to invest in job creation and in job-growing innovations locally.
The tertiary education campus is just one component of an overall master plan for the area, which will include a range of other different uses, namely, housing, schools, sports facilities and transport links. Wexford County Council will lead out on the development of this overall master plan for the area. It is these kinds of innovative, visionary projects that we need to back, both financially and from a resource perspective, to ensure that we can deliver the balanced geographical growth we want in this country. I thank the Senator for championing this project, which the Minister supports.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:53+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-30