Statement from Councillor Mary Roche on the launch of the South East Technological University strategic Plan 2023-2028.

Back in 2005 WIT had the temerity to apply for University status. Its' application was never adjudicated on but since then, we haven't seen a new building in Waterford. You can draw your own conclusions from that. The Waterford name is now wiped from the Third Level landscape replaced by the shiny new moniker SETU. Don't get me wrong, whether as WRTC or WIT the college has always outperformed its' designation and I have no doubt it will do so again under this latest one. However, it is not - and never was - the name that mattered. 'A rose by any other name..' and all that. What matters is that it delivers for Waterford and the South East. What matters is that 63% (about 13,000) of our students have to travel outside of our region every year to get the third level qualifications of their choice. For context, that number for Cork is about 25%. The challenge then, is to afford our young people the opportunity to stay. To qualify here. To build careers and families and innovate. Here. In Waterford. In the South East. That's what we were promised with this merger: that it would be a game changer; that it would reverse the brain drain. (In the absence of the full University FG promised us back in 2008, let us not forget.) Today SETU launched its' Strategic Plan 23-28 for the next five years. Bottom line in that plan? It has targeted student growth from the current 19,200 building to 21,000 in 2028. That's a growth of 1,800 over the five years. At that rate it will take two decades for us to even catch up on where other regions currently are. I see this as a complete lack of ambition in driving the growth of student numbers. Whether this lack of ambition is internal or external merits further exploration. SETU is utterly critical to the development of our city and region. We earn less here than other regions. We have less spending power than other regions. We get less capital investment than other regions. This SETU strategy will see it put nothing but a shallow dent in the gaping inequality already suffered by young people and their families in Waterford and the South East. Our young people. Our families. I'm sure they love it in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil though (as you are no doubt hearing on the airwaves and reading in the Press Releases from the usual quarters). I wonder why. Perhaps Minister Harris can answer.