Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

One of the issues raised with me by the students' union president was the cost of the accommodation in UCD is considerably higher than in other third-level institutions. Her concern was the accommodation had been designed to an especially high specification and was going to be more expensive as a consequence. The reason for that was the third-level institution perhaps wanted to be able to rent out the accommodation during the summer months and the higher the spec, the more likely it was that the university would be able to rent it out at a better cost. Is there any substance to that? Is there a contradictory message coming from the third level institutions? If they are upping the spec it may benefit them by getting conferences in but it can damage the ability of students to rent.