I understand what the Deputy raised but the crux of the matter is the residency issue for three out of the previous five years. That is a long-standing policy within the Department and the Government, as he will appreciate. It comes on the basis of proving that the person has a direct connection to the State and is ordinarily resident here. We appreciate that it obviously costs an awful lot of money to educate people. We appreciate that fees are much more expensive when a person is non-resident or is from outside t…

In answering the Deputy's question, we have to be conscious of EU law. We have to make sure that all persons within the European Union are treated equally. The exemption cannot just be available for an Irish citizen within the European Union. Again, I do not know the details of whether the person is within or outside the European Union. It might be better if I get the details and am able to explore it with officials in the Department. I do not propose to have any deviation from the three out of five years. Deputy S…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 56, 65 and 72 together. The first national student accommodation strategy was launched in July 2017. It runs until 2024. The officials in the Department and I are developing a new strategy for student accommodation, which will be published this year. The strategy will align with the long-term student accommodation policy and methodology, which were approved by the Government in January. The aim of the policy is to increase the supply of student accommodation and to examine alternati…

I do not have a date. As soon as I have it, I will bring it to the attention of Deputies. I recognise this is an important issue, as does everybody on all sides of the House. That is why the Government has put the money it has into the sector for the universities I identified. It is the same reason, in last year's budget, we made substantial changes to the tax code in respect of the rent a room or digs scheme. I will come to that later when replying to other questions. That has been very successful across the techn…

I will deal with the questions in reverse order. I will come back to Deputy Durkan directly once we have had a chance to engage with all of the local authorities with respect to unused planning permissions in the private sector. On digs accommodation, the census carried out before the end of May showed that, in Cork, there were more than 400 available rooms in digs accommodation out of a total of 2,221.

I am sorry; I did not interrupt Deputy Gould.

If the Deputy asks a question, he should at least give me an opportunity to answer it. I did not interrupt him. As somebody who stayed in digs in Cork, in Hartlands Avenue, a number of years ago, I know that these are private family homes into which people bring students. We have to be very conscious that they are private homes. The vast majority who have stayed in them would attest to the fact that, in a family environment like that, they are well looked after and get very good accommodation. To go back to what I …

When the Deputy and I last discussed this topic in May, we talked about how artificial intelligence holds transformative potential for workplaces in Ireland and what we are doing to ensure that workers of all types have the skills needed to meet challenges around displacement and opportunities to enhance their roles via artificial intelligence. AI is also promising to transform how education is delivered by our tertiary system. It can help to make learning much more personalised to meet student needs. It can also a…

I thank Deputy Stanton. The answer is "Yes". In my first response, I stated this was one of the greatest risks to the integrity of the third level sector - and to the second level sector to a degree - when it comes to ensuring what is submitted by the learner or the student is the work of the learner or the student rather than the work of somebody else. That is going to be very challenging. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is looking after the overall Government approach to artificial intelligence…

I should have said in my earlier response there are a number of courses that are already developed and in train through the higher and further education systems to see AI for a power of really positive good. It is the higher education institutions themselves, together with the Higher Education Authority, that develop the degree, postgraduate and masters courses. Through academic autonomy they have the right and the wherewithal to do that. If the Government was to be enunciating the type and content of courses we co…

I thank Deputy Farrell for raising such an important issue. To reiterate the Government's position, it is imperative we all see an end to this brutal war. The Government continues to urge Israel and Hamas to accept and fulfil the three-phase proposal outlined by President Biden and endorsed by the UN Security Council. It is vital all parties work towards reviving a political process that can provide a lasting and sustainable peace based on a two-state solution. I am conscious of the damage caused by the bombing to …

The figures I have available show that at present, there are 35 Palestinian students registered with Irish universities in the academic year 2022-23. All are undertaking postgraduate studies, with a quarter in UCD. A question has been asked before about the different between the Palestinian students and the Ukrainian students. As the Deputy will be aware, the EU temporary protection directive was activated by the EU Council in 2022 following the invasion by Russia of Ukraine. It was on that basis, to comply with th…

That is no problem. I will arrange to do that.

As the Deputy will be aware, there is currently no borrowing framework in place for the technological university sector. Housing for All contains a number of key actions relating to student accommodation, one of which involves the examination of a borrowing framework and financing options for the technological universities. The TU study is progressing in tandem with the standardised design study I referenced a while ago for student accommodation to enable a viable design model for State-supported student accommodat…

All options, including but not limited to a borrowing framework, will be considered in this regard. I visited the Munster Technological University in Kerry last week to look at the science, technology, engineering and maths building that is in bundle 1 of the PPP. This is not exclusively about borrowing capacity. It is important to point out that direct Exchequer funding is being used by a lot of the TUs at the moment together with the PPP model. We are delivering a substantial capital investment in the TUs at the …

PPPs have their place in the economy as well as direct Exchequer funding for capital works. In a previous role, we would have discussed this topic at length. PPPs have their place and are important. The structure of them, how they are laid out, the impact they have in terms of cost for the service user, in this case the student for accommodation, and site acquisition are something that ultimately the learner will be the principal beneficiary of. Direct Exchequer funding is also a route and outside of the TUs, the E…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 62 and 64 together. I am committed to progressing a new policy to provide State assistance to stimulate the development of new student accommodation. In April, the Taoiseach and I announced capital investment of €100 million from the national development plan windfall allocation for delivery of student accommodation projects. This enables the activation of 1,014 beds in UCD, DCU and Maynooth. Our long-term policy was approved by the Government on 16 January 2024. The approach includ…

There was capital investment in the past 12 months. I outlined it in the response that I gave. It came from the windfall. The current supply figures show that almost 15,000 beds have been completed since 2017. Of these, 1,500 were completed in 2023 alone. As I said a while ago with regard to costs, one of the most important things, which I hope the Deputy will welcome and support, is the legislation that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, will bring forward on the 51-week versus 40-week leases for students, where they a…

Not to point out the obvious, but we do not own the accommodation. In most of the cases, it is private. In Dublin, for instance, at the end of May 2024, the data that the universities provided themselves, as well as for digs accommodation for Maynooth, shows that there were 140 rooms for Trinity, 228 rooms for UCD, 217 for DCU, and 174 for Maynooth. It behoves all Deputies to recognise the fact that there is an issue but many things have been done. The Deputy never addressed the substantial tax changes made in the …

I thank Deputy Farrell for raising this important issue. We had quite a good discussion with regard to disabilities in the previous session. This session has been dominated by the issue of accommodation. I am glad this issue has been raised because I have a particular interest in it. Well-being and student mental health are priorities for me and the Department. Higher education institutions receive funding from a variety of different sources that contribute to the provision of mental health supports to students, in…