I thank the Taoiseach and the Government for supporting the north quays project in Waterford. It is a transformative project for the whole of the south east and it might - I say "might" - just be the turning point our region has been waiting for.

As the Taoiseach is well aware, the south east is home to just under 10% of our country's population and it has fallen behind the rest of the country. Each year, we leave behind €10 billion of GDP year on year. My parish's €16 billion of GDP should be a €26 billion economy, and it might be were it to be like the other university regions of Ireland. The region and the whole country pay a massive social cost for this underperformance. We pay for it in higher unemployment, poverty and crime rates, less consumption and services, and of course the hidden cost in the loss of our young and the brain drain from the region.

In recent years, the south east has rightly detected that the Government was actively planning for the prevention of a positive future from emerging in our region. It was preventing a university of scale, the north quays project, our airport expansion, our hospital expansion and the delivery of the M24. These projects were all aimed at fulfilling the potential in our region. We have seen the transformation of other regions and wondered where our future is. I voted for the Government's finance measures and the spending of €10 billion on capital projects this year. I wish to see transparency and equity in the provision of this money. It is great to see that over the next four years, the north quays will see €25 million per year to support the project. For those who shout that I am engaging in parish pump politics, they should hold no fear because I would say there is not a snowball's chance in hell that we in the south east will see the €890 million allocation, although Waterford will see its 2.44% of that if recent history is to be any judge.

The importance of the north quays is welcome but it is not going to close the GDP gap. The measure that will close that gap is higher education and the building of a university of substance in the south east, equivalent to the capacity and scale of those in Limerick, Galway and Cork. In the programme for Government, the south east is singled out and emphasised as the region where the technological university must be built. Yet with €56 million spent on technological universities by Government so far, the south east consortium is funded behind the Cork, Dublin and Galway-led consortiums. These three regions already have thriving universities. It begs the question of what the Government's commitment is to a Waterford-led technological university that is capable of transforming the whole south east in the way the University of Limerick has transformed the mid-west in the past 30 years, for example. Is the strategy to prevent a university of scale emerging to protect the existing national universities from the competition that we in the south east might bring? In turn, such a strategy would result in holding our region back.

Last week's announcement by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, on the urban regeneration and development fund allocation of €80.6 million, involving a total package of €110 million, with €30 million committed by the Department of Transport, is a major shot in the arm to the south east. It is essentially a game changer for the city and the region. It demonstrates real intent by the Government in delivering on its programme for Government commitments for balanced regional development, which we need and which is essential for the overall development of the country because it is unbalanced at the moment.

The technological university of the south east is critical to achieving that objective. I have had discussions with the Deputy and with other Deputies from the south east on this. It is extremely important that we facilitate the ongoing discussions that are under way on the establishment of the technological university for the south east, because it is anticipated that an application for technological university designation under the Technological Universities Act 2018 will be submitted by the consortium in April or May of next year. If the application is successful following all due legal processes, the consortium would anticipate technological university establishment by January 2022. That is a significant milestone to work towards, which would have a knock-on beneficial impact in terms of economic regeneration and activity in the south east more generally.

The consortium of IT Carlow and Waterford IT has been progressing proposals since 2011, and it is time to really move this forward. As I discussed with the Deputy, there are strong oversight structures. The appointment of Tom Boland, who is highly respected and experienced, as the programme executive director, has given added momentum to the work under way. More than 300 staff are now involved in the various working groups to get this project over the line. The plan has been developed as a joint governing body steering group for the TUSEI consortium and it is moving in the right direction.

Clearly, capital needs will arise in respect of the new technological university. As a former Minister for Education and Science, and having been very involved with Waterford Institute of Technology, when it was creating the new base in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and likewise with IT Carlow, I assure Deputy Shanahan that the Government is genuinely committed to doing the right thing here and to develop the capacity of this technological university as a prime driver of economic activity in the region.

There is strong foreign direct investment, FDI, in Waterford and we should use that FDI base to leverage more inward investment in Waterford and generally across the south east. It is important that we utilise the university as an important leveraging tool when we have discussions with foreign direct investment companies and multinationals which may wish to come in, but also to provide the research base for our indigenous companies across the south east. They can use the facilities in Waterford, Carlow and elsewhere to help local industry. Collaboration with industry is the great strength of technological universities.

I thank the Taoiseach and note that we met recently to discuss this issue. There has been much talk about a diffused model for the south-east technological university. National policy has been to consolidate services, and that was the logic behind having DIT in Grangegorman and UCD in Belfield. There is no model on earth, however, of a multi-campus diffused university working. It is worrying for us in the south east that we are forced to accept a model of higher education which we know has failed everywhere else. We are being asked to accept consolidation as a means of achieving regional university status for the highest performing institute of technology in the country. The people in Cork and Dublin were not asked to suggest any such model, and I have concerns about the primacy of Waterford IT within this TU-led development.

I ask the Taoiseach to ensure that the Government delivers a workable university for Waterford and the south east, which acknowledges Waterford as the gateway and economic driver of the south-east region. Within that, we need to see reasoned and fair educational modelling. We need to see recognition of the past and future performance of the institutions in the area, particularly WIT which has been completely under-resourced, to be fair, over the past 20 years. We need to see that our track record in achievement in higher education and servicing our students will have primacy within that configuration

Unity is strength. The technological university for the south east must be seen in that context. However, Waterford has also grown extremely well in recent decades and it has created its own niche, as has IT Carlow, in different faculties. Each institute of technology has significant strengths. If we talk to people in industry, they all identify the role of institutes of technology as being critical to their growth and to economic and industrial development in the regions. That is a fact. If we look at our life sciences, in particular, from engineering to instrumentation and lab technicians, those areas have been superb. I refer to the quality of graduates who come from these institutes. If I was a Carlow or Waterford representative, I would be confident regarding the quality of that institution and the capacity of that institution to grow and develop. It will need Government support and I acknowledge that, and we intend to provide and deliver that support.