The second of the WLR 2024 General Election Debates took place at the Tower Hotel in Waterford City on Wednesday, November 20th.
Seven candidates were present on the night, all seeking to be elected to the 34th Dáil.
In attendance were - Patrick Curtin (People Before Profit Solidarity); Mary Roche (Social Democrats); David Cullinane (Sinn Féin); Frank Conway (Independent); John Cummins (Fine Gael); Marc O'Cathasaigh (Green Party) and John D. Walsh (The Irish People).
Several topical issues, local and national, were debated on the night, one of them being SETU.
John D. Walsh
The Irish People candidate, John D. Walsh lectured in the college previously. However, he says he is in disagreement with flags representing sectors of society flying on the campus.
"The development of the college has to depend on a broader vision of where the country and the society are going. My worry about these colleges is the introduction of censorship, the introduction of cancellation, and stopping people with certain views from making their views known in the college. And I passed along by the college this evening and these LGBT flags were flying. I mean, that shouldn't be. That's not right
Patrick Curtin
People Before Profit Candidate Patrick Curtin was the previous president of the SETU student union and says the accommodation crisis remains a major issue at the University.
"As you know, Damien, I'm the former president of the SETU Students' Union. I sat on the governing body. I sat on the Capital Projects Committee. I sat on many things. There's one thing that people are missing. It's great seeing the introduction of the veterinarian courses, but we need to be very careful. We can't keep introducing all these courses and upping the number of students because there's (10:58) one thing that no one said here tonight at this table. We have a hidden accommodation crisis and it's the student accommodation crisis. We can't be bringing all these thousands of students every year if we have nowhere to house them. There are less than 1,200 available student accommodation places in Waterford that are purposely student accommodation and SETU only owns about 420-430 roughly.
"We also need to get rid of the technological part of SETU because it's still WIT at the end of the day. Even though it says Southeast Technological University, we need the Southeast University and we need to put in a borrowing framework for SETU. They need to be recognised by the European Central Bank and they need full control over their own capital projects and get rid of public-private partnerships."
Mary Roche
Social Democrats candidate, Mary Roche, spent over 20 years on the governing body of WIT, as well as being a former student where she served as Student Union President for a time.
"In their strategic plan, SETU set out that they needed 350 million over the next five years to grow, and they have gotten four million in terms of capital development.
"It would make your eyes and your brain bleed, Damien, to go to any other university campus in Ireland and see the development that has been there. Waterford, again, I keep going back and it comes up on the door. Waterford is the forgotten city. And when I talk about this, I want to just clarify, that I in no way do want to denigrate the achievements of SETU, because whether under the designation of WRTC or WIT or indeed SETU, the college has always outperformed. Calling SETU a full university is like calling a junior minister a full minister. You're not sitting at the table with the big boys. Waterford does not have equality with other cities and other regions in terms of the development of third-level education. Sixty percent of our students stay in other regions outside of Waterford."
David Cullinane
Frank Conway
Independent candidate, Frank Conway has been a lecturer at SETU for over twenty years. He raised concerns over the recent cyber attack at the third-level institute.
"It's fantastic to see the capital investment being put in. The old Waterford Crystal site and hats off to the government and whoever else was involved in getting that going, however, it's a little bit too late. It should have been taken on board when we discussed it back in the year 2011-2012 when property prices were better. There was a building site ready to be developed. And that still, for over 16, 17 years now, the steel fences are still around that engineering building. It's rusting in parts. At the moment, there's a situation in which we cannot actually engage with the students through our computer systems because of the unfortunate situation where there was a cyber attack. We cannot get Wi-Fi in our classrooms. The government should be helping the president and the members who are running to develop this SETU as a vibrant, innovative, and culturally enriched community that would have very positive and multiplying effects on the whole region within Waterford.
John Cummins
Fine Gael candidate, John Cummins, says that we need to prop up the University for how far it has come in recent years.
"In relation to SETU, there are people who said that certain things would not happen. People said that there would be political interference in the decision-making process for veterinary medicine and pharmacy and it was also said that Waterford wouldn't be successful in relation to those. We have them. Now, there are going to be 200 additional students over a five-year program in each of those programs. We have people coming to SETU from the likes of Cambridge University, from Trinity College in order to lead and take up (8:00) programs. We need to talk up our university rather than talk it down because I think it does a disservice to students and disservice to lecturers and the amazing staff there if we talk it down."
Marc O'Cathasaigh
Green Party candidate, Marc O'Cathasaigh said we need more capital investment when it comes to third-level education in Waterford.
"I'm intensely disappointed that we didn't get movement on that engineering building. We've made good deliveries as well. Both myself John Cummins and Mary Butler did a lot of work to make sure that crystal building was applied. Also, the pharmacy course, and the delivery of the veterinary course. These are not small things. They're good things, but we need big capital investment."
For the latest Waterford News and Sport, tune into WLR News on the hour and download the WLR App for news on demand.
