Transport Infrastructure Ireland
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-02
============================================================

Donna McGettigan (SF), Clare

I take this opportunity to mention a study by Professor Liz Thomas that was informed by a commitment to institutional change rather than just expecting commuter students to fit in with unreformed higher education institutions, HEIs, which states:
This would be facilitated by an institutional enabling environment which involves aligning institutional policies, processes and organisations, and engaging with stakeholders from senior leadership to staff and students around a shared goal of an inclusive experience and equitable outcomes ...
I have spoken to students about this. I spoke to students at Jigsaw yesterday who informed me that they feel that nobody seems to be talking or speaking to them about this and that they want to be recognised as a group. They said it is a burning issue for them. One of the issues they spoke about was having to get public transport at times that do not match up with their lectures. They get to college very early and do not get home until late at night. They have to leave early. The Minister says he wants them to enjoy the whole college experience, but they are not able to do this. Because of the issue with buses, some of them are missing lectures. There is a poor outcome in some data which shows that those making long commutes are suffering.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:14+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02