Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 19 October 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science

Photo of Malcolm ByrneMalcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail)
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There will. I will not go through all of them. I want to raise the question of student accommodation, which remains a critical challenge. We should be supporting our higher education institutions to develop as much as on-campus accommodation as possible. This would help to relieve pressure on the wider housing issue. As the Minister knows, there is a significant cost to higher education institutions to be able to provide such accommodation in a way that will be affordable to students. The only way that is going to be done at present in most cases is where there are supports made available from the State for the provision of student accommodation. I know the Minister has indicated support for this. Will we be able to see that for 2023? Can we see that in a way which ensures that at the start of the 2023-24 academic year, we may be able to see a level of State investment to support on-campus student accommodation? Critically, it must be affordable for students to rent thereafter.