Student Accommodation and Supports: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-26
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

Good man. I am replying to his comment on the free student meal. It is something I will have a look at. There is a €20 million fund, the student assistance fund, which colleges can use at their discretion. If a particular college wanted to start utilising that for that purpose, that would be within its control.
If the Senator knows any that are interested, he might encourage them along to that. Certainly, I am happy to work with him on that and see what happens there.
The other point Senator Boyhan made - again, a few others touched on this as well - was about broad education, that is, the idea that it is not just about what happens in the classroom or in the lecture hall but also about the sport, the participation, the friendships, the networks and all that campus life. I have been very strong, I hope, on advocating for broad education. It is not even necessarily about a deep dive into one particular specialty but about the opportunity during a university education to sample humanities, sciences, commerce and the wider world in order that when you go forward, particularly in an age of AI and digital evolution, you will not be tied to one particular set of skills but will have the ability to be transversal, as a number of Senators have said, and can bring those skills with you.
Senator Kennelly spoke about the cost of education, improving access and the 55 professorships in the technological universities which I have introduced. He mentioned correctly the need to amplify our apprenticeship output and our skills. One thing I frequently speak to is matching the Government's ambition in terms of infrastructure, construction, energy, grid, transport, ports, roads and railways, not to mention housing front and centre. We need to have the trades, the skills and the people ready to do that. Just tomorrow morning, as it happens, I am hosting a construction round-table event. I am bringing about 40 different companies in the construction sector together along with my training agencies, SOLAS, the ETBs and the Higher Education Authority and having a round-table discussion to say, "What are the skills you need? What are you getting from the training system? Have you enough, and if not, tell me, and then I can actually begin to pay for the system to supply those skills." It is paramount to deliver other serious projects, which we absolutely want to do. We need to make sure we have the skills and personnel ready to do it. As it happens, tomorrow morning, I am bringing all those bodies together to work through that. That is so important.
Senator Cosgrove spoke about the strategy as it pertains particularly to Sligo. In terms of ATU, the first phase of the strategy talks about Dublin, Cork and Galway so, obviously, ATU Galway can participate in that. However, it does not stop there. The first phase is where we have expressions of interest and we go out to colleges in those three cities and say, "What do you have ready to go? Are you interested in partaking in this? Talk to us about your proposals." I have said clearly, and I said it to President Orla Flynn when I met her last week, that if there are proposals outside of those three cities and they are ready to go, people should come straight in the door with them. I will not stand on ceremony or wait for six months in line with the 12 months to get to another phase. If there are projects around the country, in any part of the country, that are ready to go, let us take them now and get them moving. I have said that, and Senators should feel free to speak to the people in the different colleges and areas they represent because I will not wait around for anything. Let us get this moving as quickly as we possibly can.
In addition, I totally agree with Senator Cosgrove's remarks about the pharmacy school coming into ATU. I launched the veterinary school in Letterkenny ATU just recently as well. I completely agree that it is so important and transformative to have professional qualifications delivered across the TUs in regional areas where previously they were the preserve of the big cities. Dublin was the only place and UCD was the only college in the country where you could do veterinary until now. Now you can do it in three places: SETU, ATU and UCD.
Senator Harmon spoke about supporting colleges through the roll-out. I absolutely agree, and again, we have an engagement group up and running and we have had a number of meetings already with a number of colleges. I know the Senator has a national remit but she spoke to Cork as well about the MTU and Cork. As I said a moment ago, any projects that are ready to go should approach us immediately. Cork is actually in the first phase of the strategy in any event, so they are already being engaged with in MTU and in UCC. I was in UCC just last week. I met President O'Halloran and we talked about the strategy as regards UCC as well.
Senator Harmon also talked about the student protections and I completely share her concerns about that. That is why I introduced in the legislation the three-year protection window - to make sure that student tenancies are not reset. As regards the way it was done with the new landlord-tenant legislation on RPZs, had I not made that intervention, they would have been subject to an annual reset when they vacated, so I had to proactively intervene and secure amendments in the legislation. That was done and that happened and that is now law.
I thank Senator O'Loughlin for her kind words. The mid-term review of the national access plan is really impactful and shows progress being made in an empirical way. We had a target of students with disabilities participating in higher and further education. We have actually exceeded our targets for 2028 and 2026, so for the past 15 months we have got two years ahead of schedule. We will not rest on our laurels; we will continue to drive that on and to do more. It goes back to the point I have often made about targeted supports, which is that rather than something for everyone in the audience, we ask who the cohorts that particularly need assistance are and who particularly needs help. For students with disabilities, obviously a cohort that fits into that category, we have given those additional supports and now we see the fruits of that coming through already. I will continue to work on that, but that was really positive.
On Senator O'Loughlin's comments about the opportunity for north-west Kildare to play its part in apprenticeship delivery, she will be pleased to know I have already spoken to Kildare and Wicklow ETB on that, encouraging it very strongly to put forward proposals we can then work with.
I thank Senator Scahill for his comments. He is right that we are going way beyond what we currently anticipate as the need. In terms of the 15,000 deficit, we are looking at 42,000. Let us not always be on the back foot; let us actually get ahead of it. That is very much the intention. I am familiar with the Athlone green city initiative. I have had a number of meetings about that and I admire the ambition that is there and certainly want to support that in every way I can.
Senator Rabbitte has a very good sense of the student pressure zones in terms of rent pressure zones. I will certainly look at that and I think it will be taken into account when the colleges sit down with others. Senator O'Reilly asked a question about how this will actually work in practice. One of the ways it will work is that the colleges identify sites, which they can develop themselves if they wish to do so, or they can partner with the private sector to come on site and build it out for them. Part of that conversation will be about what the rent will be. The colleges have the opportunity to be involved in that conversation and set a rent that is appropriate to them and that they are comfortable with on behalf of their students. That is part of that engagement. There is a very long lease built in here as regards the nominations agreement, so there is comfort for everybody in that once they get the terms of that agreed to their satisfaction, it is very doable for them.
Senator Rabbitte mentioned that she had three children in college at one stage. Fair play to her. My mother had four of us in college at the same time and it is not easy. It is something I am minded to examine in the budget. I will not make any promises about budgets but I am certainly very mindful of that. Senator Ryan has also mentioned it in the past and other Senators and other Deputies have mentioned it. Where there is a family with multiple children attending college at the one time, again, there should be targeted intervention, that is, that little bit of extra help for those families. I am very minded to examine that.
Senator O'Reilly asked about how it actually works and the mechanics of it. We have an engagement team up and running, and all the presidents of the colleges have been briefed on it right across the TUs and the universities. That team has now come to the detail of the proposals. Effectively, they suggest land banks or sites within their campuses that might be appropriate for accommodation. They then come and speak to my team. They can be matched up with private finance where necessary. There is now also the borrowing framework for TUs, which was not there previously. Then they can come to terms that are agreeable to all and go ahead and build it.
I noticed that Senator O'Reilly also mentioned spending time on campus. I completely agree. It is so important. It goes back to the broad education point I made. It is one of the reasons I vetoed an early draft proposal to have more remote timetabling. I do not think it is appropriate. I think it may be of benefit but it is not something I can stand over as a solution, so I was very keen that students have the benefit of a college education. That means being in college. It does not mean being at a lecture remotely on Zoom every night. You really miss out on the experience by doing that.
Finally, in terms of access and student supports, I will publish an options paper in the coming weeks. As I did last year, I met students' associations, access groups, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and a number of different groups and we had a very good session recently where we got around the table and listened to what students' asks, wants and needs were. I am putting those into an options paper, where I will itemise the different requests, put a price against each one, because all these things have Exchequer commitments, and, for the first time this year, something I initiated with the economics unit in my department, we will put an impact against each item as well. If we do this, how much does it cost, and then what is the impact of doing it? I will publish that and I would welcome a debate about that and feedback on it when it is out in the ether.
Thank you, Chair, for having me here. I thank colleagues for a very good engagement, as always, and I look forward to working with them into the future.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-26