Sinn Féin spokesperson on Further and Higher Education, Mairéad Farrell TD, has said Minister Harris’ record as Minister for Further and Higher Education shows he will not deliver the change needed as Taoiseach.
 
Teachta Farrell warned that Harris’ legacy in Further and Higher Education is the ongoing crisis in student accommodation, the emerging crisis in the University sector’s finances, and the constant failure to hit the government’s own apprenticeship targets.
 
Teachta Farrell said:
 
“Simon Harris’ time as Minister for Further and Higher Education exposed how he is clearly a politician that is all spin and no substance. 
 
“The student accommodation crisis continued to get worse during Harris’ time as Minister. He presided over vulture funds becoming the largest provider of student accommodation in the state. With rents running at over €1,000 a month for rooms the size of a car parking space this has become completely unaffordable for parents and students.
 
“Harris failed to introduce student digs regulation instead going for guidelines, and has been re-announcing the same University accommodation beds continuously, that have already been provided for, done most recently at the Ard Fheis. His approach has been all smoke and mirrors.
 
“Harris has left an appalling legacy in how he has mishandled apprentices. We need to significantly increase the output of craft apprentices if we are to address the housing and infrastructural crisis. Although Minister Harris has acknowledged this, he has consistently failed to reach his output target of 10,000 new registrations a year. In fact, he has failed to hit his even lower 2020 target of 9,000 a year.
 
“If we are to develop the skills needed to build the homes that Ireland desperately requires and end the housing crisis, we must get apprenticeships right. Harris repeatedly failed to do this.
 
“Another area where spin didn’t match delivery is oversight of university finances. University sector finances are another area in which Harris was all spin and no substance. With Technological University Dublin (TUD), University College Cork (UCC) and the University of Limerick (UL) all grappling with financial deficits, the latter amidst accusations of financial mismanagement. Minister Harris failed to address the core funding deficit of the sector which is a hangover from the austerity period.
 
“It is abundantly clear that Harris is all spin and no substance. His time in office as Minister for Further and Higher Education should mean he is considered totally out of the question for top office.”
 
ENDS