Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is both. This has been passed to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, which is co-ordinating accommodation. In the first instance, my Department wrote to all of the universities, higher education institutions to ask them to help and to ask them what they could do. Approximately 1,000 beds came through that exercise. A further exercise was done and the Department got the number up to approximately 2,000. In addition to that, and separate to and distinct from our work, a number of conversations have been held between the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and private providers, in other words, people who are not within our direct ambit. That is where that stands. It is a mix of public and private. The figure is approximately 2,000 in the higher education institutions, which are college owned. The figure is approximately 2,000 or 2,500 in the private sector. We are very clear that student accommodation is student accommodation. This is welcome in the short term but it cannot be a medium-term solution, for obvious reasons. However, it can be a release valve or breathing space while other solutions are put in place. Any of the higher education institution combinations that are being contracted or offered are specifically for that summer period.