Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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That is a substantial amount of money. It is divided up via the landscape fund, the technological universities transformation fund, the sector advancement fund, the research and innovation fund and the transformation for resilience and recovery fund.

A lot of work is being done with the technological universities and others with regard to accommodation. The feasibility study report is due in the first quarter of 2025. That is opportune because the standardised design for student accommodation will be finished around the same time. The standardised design will be an agreed set of building standards for purpose-built student accommodation that is coming out of the public purse. Additionally, a number of planning permissions around the country have not been activated. There are permissions in place for the technological universities and other colleges, including the likes of the Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy Ireland, MaREI. We are looking to see how they can be activated. They are in private hands and we will not initiate compulsory purchase orders but we can work with owners and developers to ensure those permissions are activated. Next year's fund will help to give certainty in that regard. It grows and rolls over on an annual basis and gives certainty not only to the higher educational institutes but also to the owners of the lands who may have planning permission. The funding can reassure them that it would be worth activating the permission.

The State can do a great deal but it cannot do everything. My predecessor and I put a lot of emphasis on digs accommodation in the past year. This year, we have increased the income tax thresholds again. The rent-a-room tax credit has been a success, as we know. We know from the past 12 months and the census that was carried out at the end of the academic year that there is surplus accommodation in many towns, including university towns and those associated with the South East Technological University. We want to work with private householders because students are coming into their homes. There is a double element to it. One is the rent-a-room tax credit and the other is the tax credit that accrues to the students or their parents, which is going up by €250. Over the period of time we have put an emphasis on this issue, we have doubled the number of digs beds available. There are now just short of 5,500 digs beds available, which is not insignificant. We want to grow that availability further.