Mr. Ciaran McCaffrey:

I will come in on some of the points and pick up on what Mr. Lemass said. We have a similar survey that touched on 35,000 students over two years. The number is somewhat lower concerning those living at home, with it reported that 32% across both years were impacted. Another question we asked in terms of a situation where all things were equal and cost was not such an issue was what percentage of people would prefer to reside at home. Even if costs were not an issue, 10% of students stated they would like to reside at home. That is just something to consider in the context of this topic.

Turning to the Deputy's point about the public and private aspect, we talked previously about the Cork example, where the private sector continued in the pre-Covid era to deliver a strong pipeline of purpose-built student accommodation that was addressing the demand. Only since the results of hyperinflation and the pandemic and the subsequent increase in the development costs has that pipeline broken down and the State has had to take a more active role. There is, therefore, a role for the private sector to continue to deliver.