Green Party welcomes €40m fund to make colleges greener and more accessible

Green Party spokesperson for Education Senator Pauline O’Reilly has welcomed the announcement today (15th August) of an additional €40m for higher education institutions to make their facilities more accessible and energy efficient.

The funding can be used for building works to support universal access, energy efficiency upgrades, ICT upgrades, health and safety works and building upgrades.

Senator O’Reilly said;

“This is a really important grant scheme for colleges as many of them need help in achieving their goals around energy efficiency and access.

“It’s important that the buildings we use regularly are fit for purpose and taking the same steps forward that our residential housing stock is set to make in the coming years.

“We also strongly welcome the efforts to improve universal access to our colleges. Often practical barriers can impact decisions around education, and this is not something we can stand for. It is critical that we work to transition all our institutions to universal access, and this will help that.”

Funding will be provided through the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for all Technological Universities, Institutes of Technology and smaller colleges with the exception of Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) and Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) who will be funded directly by The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS).