Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science
Student Accommodation: Discussion
2:00 am
Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Apologies have been received from Deputy Brendan Smith and Senator Paul Daly.
Everyone is welcome. I ask anyone attending remotely to mute themselves when not contributing so we do not pick up any background noise or feedback. As usual, I remind all those in attendance to ensure their mobile phones are on silent or switched off.
Members attending remotely are reminded of the constitutional requirement that in order to participate in public meetings, they must be physically present within the confines of the Leinster House complex. Witnesses within the precincts of Leinster House are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the presentation they make to the committee. This means they have an absolute defence against any defamation action for anything they say at the meeting. However, they are expected not to abuse this privilege. It is my duty as Cathaoirleach to ensure this privilege is not abused. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that the witnesses comply with any such direction.
Members are also reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person or entity outside the Houses or an official of the Houses either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.
On the agenda for today's meeting is student accommodation, with the following witnesses. From the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, we have Mr. Paul Lemass, assistant secretary general; Ms Patricia Lee, assistant principal; Ms Niamh Griffin, higher executive officer; and Ms Nicola Finnegan, higher executive officer. From the Higher Education Authority, we have Ms Orla Nugent, deputy chief executive officer; Mr. Ciaran McCaffrey, head of capital funding; and Ms Emily Cunningham, senior manager of capital programmes. They are all very welcome to the meeting.
I call Mr. Lemass from the Department to make his opening statement, for which he has five minutes.
Mr. Paul Lemass:
I thank the Chairperson and members of the committee for the opportunity to appear before them to discuss the important issue of student accommodation. I am joined today by Ms Patricia Lee, Ms Niamh Griffin and Ms Nicola Finnegan who work in the Department's dedicated student accommodation unit. I welcome the committee's interest in this issue. I begin by emphasising the Department acknowledges that access to affordable and appropriate accommodation is an essential part of the student experience and a key factor in supporting participation in higher education.
The number of students participating in higher education in Ireland continues to grow, which brings significant pressure to bear on the existing stock of student housing, further compounded by constrained supply in the wider rental market. Many students report difficulties securing suitable accommodation near their institution, with affordability a particular issue for lower income and underrepresented groups. Traditionally, student accommodation has been provided through a combination of publicly funded institutions and the private sector. This model supported growth in student numbers for many years, but recent developments have significantly challenged its sustainability. The viability of student accommodation has been particularly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent inflationary pressures.
While approximately 5,000 new student bed spaces were delivered during the Covid period, the number of completions dropped significantly in the post-Covid period. The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland has reported that construction cost inflation over the past three years has been shaped by a series of evolving economic factors. In 2022, inflation reached record highs, driven primarily by surging energy prices, global supply chain disruptions and acute labour shortages.
In response, the Government has taken a series of steps to stabilise the sector and improve availability, viability and security of tenure for students. To strengthen the policy framework, a dedicated student accommodation unit was established within the Department. While this was informed by the recommendations of the joint committee's report on the future funding of higher education, its creation was primarily in response to Housing For All, which called for both short- and long-term policy responses to the issue of student accommodation. Students were formally brought under the scope of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, which extended key protections for those living in purpose-built student accommodation. This change gave student licensees access to the dispute resolution process of the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, and ensured greater consistency in how student housing is regulated. Subsequent legislative changes in 2024 introduced further safeguards tailored to students' needs, including a standardised 41-week tenancy term aligned with the academic year and the ability to exercise a 28-day notice period between May and October. The Act also strengthened rules on upfront payments, thereby reducing ambiguity. These changes provide students with greater protection and flexibility, while encouraging fairer practice among providers.
The rent a room relief was increased to €14,000 from 2017 to incentivise homeowners to rent out spare rooms in their homes, particularly to students and others in need of affordable accommodation. This tax-free income threshold was designed to make it more attractive to contribute to easing the rental market pressures, especially in areas with limited housing supply.
The Department also issued guidance and sample licence agreements to higher education institutes, informed by direct engagement with student unions, to support local responses and consistent practices. These interventions highlight the importance of this issue for the Government and in that context, the Department's role is threefold. First is to support a co-ordinated approach across government and with institutions to improve supply. Second is to ensure that the student voice is reflected in policy development, including around affordability, quality standards and tenancy protections. Third is to work with the Higher Education Authority, higher education sector and other stakeholders to explore sustainable models of funding, delivery and regulation of student accommodation, as well as affordability supports.
In delivering on these responsibilities, the Department is employing a range of targeted measures to address the student accommodation challenge in a strategic and evidence-based way.
We are employing four key tools, namely, the standardised design to enable efficient delivery and value for money for the State; enhanced supply and demand modelling to inform planning and public investment; the technological sector student accommodation programme to deliver regionally balanced campus-specific projects; and a national survey to capture students' lived experience and housing needs.
The short-term activation programme launched by the Department was a critical early intervention to help with the supply of accommodation in the short term, providing funding to higher education institutes, HEIs, to build accommodation that had planning permission but could not proceed due to the high cost of construction. Some €100 million in capital investment from the national development plan was committed over the period 2024 to 2026. Funding was allocated to HEIs for purpose-built student accommodation projects and as part of the funding conditions, a percentage of new student beds will be ring-fenced for students from target groups identified in the national access plan. These designated beds will be offered at a reduced rental rate to support access to higher education for underrepresented and disadvantaged students. This demonstrates that although this is a policy for all students, there is an emphasis on providing accommodation for the most disadvantaged in line with the national access plan.
Subsequently, following a request from the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, the technological sector student accommodation programme was launched to provide a vehicle for delivering new, affordable student accommodation in a targeted way throughout the country. This is being co-ordinated on behalf of the Department by the HEA and is currently progressing through the infrastructure guidelines process, which includes strategic assessment and preliminary business case.
Stage 1 of the programme included the development of a supply and demand model and a programmatic approach for HEIs to submit preliminary business cases for student accommodation. As part of this first stage, HEIs submitted strategic assessment documents outlining proposed projects last year. The HEA undertook an evaluation of this long list and provided a report to the Department with 53 proposals, including for purpose-built student accommodation both on and off campus, for leasing joint ventures and repurposing of vacant or derelict property.
The second stage will involve the development and assessment of the initial preliminary business case, comprising a PBC narrative, financial model, economic model and multi-criteria analysis model. The programme will align with all criteria outlined in the infrastructure guidelines process regarding evaluation, planning and management of public investment projects. Projects for progression under stage 2 will align with this process, ensuring that locations are chosen based on strategic fit, feasibility and alignment with national policy objectives.
In 2023, the Department worked in close co-ordination with the Department of children to assist in the humanitarian accommodation response to refugees and agreed a protocol on the use of student accommodation for international protection and beneficiaries of temporary protection. Due to decreased need to accommodate those seeking temporary protection, the Department of children recently undertook a review of its accommodation contracts. As a result, approximately 1,800 beds will return to the student accommodation sector this year.
Following a recommendation from the 2023 residential cost construction study report, the student accommodation standardised design study began in August 2024 to establish design standards that promote consistent, cost-effective and high-quality student housing using modern methods of construction. The Minister, Deputy Lawless, published the resulting design guide for State-sponsored student accommodation on 24 June 2025, developed through extensive literature reviews, stakeholder engagement and benchmarking. The guide reflects inputs from students, parents, providers and industry experts. As an iterative framework, it incorporates best practice to support the efficient delivery of student accommodation, ensuring value for money for the State, while also developing modern residences that are functional, sustainable, maintainable, flexible, safe and architecturally well designed. The guide adopts a bottom-up approach to define minimum space requirements for bedrooms, bathrooms and communal areas, offering flexibility with room types, including single, twin and double rooms and options for shared or en suite bathrooms.
Looking forward, the Department is committed to delivering further progress through a range of planned measures. While the guide sets out design standards specifically for State-sponsored student accommodation, it is intended that relevant standards will be identified for broader application, including privately led student accommodation developments, with a view to incorporating them into section 28 planning guidelines. Preliminary business cases are being progressed through the technological sector student accommodation programme, TSSAP, pipeline to increase supply. In parallel, the Department continues to engage with the Department of housing on rental reform measures to ensure that students' unique needs are considered.
All of this progress will be crystallised and complemented by a new long-term student accommodation strategy which is currently in development. The vision for this strategy is to ensure that the availability and rental cost of accommodation no longer act as a barrier to access or progress through higher education. Its focus will be on measures to increase equitable access to higher education. By addressing these challenges, we aim to create an equitable environment where students, regardless of their background, have the opportunity to fully benefit from the opportunities provided by higher education.
The Department remains committed to working with our colleagues in the Higher Education Authority to advance the range of student accommodation initiatives outlined to the committee today. I welcome members’ questions and look forward to continuing engagement with the committee to ensure our approach to student accommodation is fully responsible, sustainable and fit for the future.
Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Mr. Lemass and call Ms Orla Nugent from the Higher Education Authority to make her opening statement.
Ms Orla Nugent:
I am the deputy CEO of the Higher Education Authority. On behalf of the HEA, I thank the Cathaoirleach and members of the committee for the opportunity to speak today and discuss the matter referred to in the committee’s letter of 4 July. I am joined today by Mr. Ciaran McCaffrey, head of capital programmes in the HEA, and Ms Emily Cunningham. I will provide a brief overview of the HEA's 2015 report on student accommodation and highlight some of the more recent initiatives in which the HEA is supporting the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, such as a student accommodation unit for student accommodation supply.
In 2015, the HEA published a report on student accommodation demand and supply, which aimed to estimate the demand for student bed spaces from 2015 to 2024, as well as the estimated supply of spaces, both higher education institution-owned and private rented accommodation. This 2015 HEA report was a once-off report and the analysis was limited by the data available at that time, particularly in relation to the supply of private student accommodation. Nevertheless, the findings of the report put forward an estimate of unmet demand of circa 25,000 beds, based on Department of education student projections from July 2014 and available purpose-built student accommodation supply data at the time.
The report outlined key drivers of this demand for student bed spaces such as rising student numbers, which were projected to increase until 2024, and a large demand for international student places. Recommendations were put forward to increase supply of student accommodation related to the rent a room scheme, planning and development, delivery models, financing, development costs, accessibility and supporting access and, finally, further research.
This report led to the establishment of the first interdepartmental working group on student accommodation, with this group subsequently supporting the development of the first national student accommodation strategy 2017 and monitoring its implementation. Since the publication of this report in 2015 and the subsequent national student accommodation strategy 2017, the student accommodation landscape, including the State's role in this regard, has evolved significantly. Over recent years, the impact of high construction costs has been widely felt throughout the sector and the level of purpose-built student accommodation being delivered by higher education institutions has slowed in recent years as a consequence.
As the committee is aware, in November 2022 the Government approved the development of a new policy to provide State assistance for the first time to activate the development of new student accommodation for public higher education institutions. The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science launched a long-term policy on student accommodation on 19 January 2024, which aims to deliver an increased supply of student accommodation to relieve pressure on the private rental sector and create an environment where the cost of and availability of accommodation does not act as a barrier to attending third level education. This new Department strategy for student accommodation is due to be published this year.
Since 2023, the HEA has been supporting the Department with the delivery of a number of initiatives under the Department's long-term policy, which I highlight to the committee. They include the short-term activation programme, the aim of which is to provide funding to higher education institutions to activate projects that have planning permission in place but could not be delivered due to viability issues, principally due to high development costs. The delivery of up to circa 1,000 new purpose-built student accommodation beds has been progressed under this programme, with 116 beds on track to be delivered for the academic year 2025-26. Some 30% of the bed spaces delivered in these schemes will be ring-fenced for target group students at below market rates, and the emphasis is on providing student accommodation for the most disadvantaged in line with the Student Universal Support Ireland national access plan and disability access route to education schemes.
With regard to the feasibility study and student accommodation survey, the HEA, working in conjunction with the Department, is undertaking a study to assess the demand for student accommodation at local, regional and national level through engagement with the sector. The study also aims to project future supply and demand for student accommodation at a national and regional level. This study will be used to inform the Department's strategy due to published later this year.
Additionally, the HEA has delivered two iterations of a new annual student accommodation survey. The survey gathers data on students' experience in securing accommodation, their satisfaction with their accommodation and their commute to their place of study.
On the standardised design study, the committee may be aware that following a recommendation from the residential construction cost study report, a standardised design study has been recently completed by the HEA behalf of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. The design guide sets out new design standards for State-sponsored student accommodation. It is an iterative framework that reflects best practices and supports the efficient delivery of student accommodation. The guide provides for a range of sample room layouts for bedrooms, kitchens, living and dining areas and clusters. The standards were developed following a detailed literature and policy review, a stakeholder engagement process and a benchmarking study on national, European and international design practices. Feedback was considered from a variety of stakeholders, including students and parents, accommodation providers and industry construction policy experts. The standards have been referenced in the recently published Planning Design Standards for Apartments: Guidelines for Planning Authorities 2025, under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, issued by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
I shall now turn to the technological university sector student accommodation programme. The intention of this programme is to develop a programmatic approach to the technological university sector's student accommodation proposals. Phase 1 of the programme saw higher education institutions, HEIs, complete their strategic assessment for the infrastructure guidelines. There were 53 proposals received for the development of student accommodation by the sector. The proposals included new developments, refurbishments, lease agreements and use of vacant property. Phase 2 of the programme is ongoing and it is anticipated that HEIs will undertake preliminary business cases in line with the requirements of the infrastructure guidelines.
The HEA looks forward to continuing to support our colleagues in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in furthering the range of student accommodation initiatives, as outlined, for the higher education sector. I thank the committee. My colleagues and I look forward to members' questions and discussion on this matter.
Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses. They are very welcome in here today to discuss student accommodation. It is all about housing, housing and housing. I know a lot has been done but as a Government we need to do an awful lot more. I understand there have been a lot of restrictions regarding Covid and then the Russian invasion of Ukraine and all the other issues around international protection. These have caused a lot of turbulence. It certainly has not helped in the student accommodation sector.
There is a growing student population, as was said, and the shortage of affordable housing options is causing concern. I welcome that many measures have been implemented on behalf of students. I live in Sligo and we had huge issues regarding student accommodation where a developer allowed a development to close down for a year and then reopened it. I thought this was sharp practice. I pay tribute to the students' union and the college, which highlighted the €14,000 rent-a-room relief. They went out of their way to ring around and it certainly helped. We are, however, still in a very dangerous crisis. Has the Department talked to other Departments, such as the Department of children, on how to address this? Just one agency or one Department will not solve this on their own. We need a little bit more.
On the viability of student accommodation, it has been the case that student accommodation in Ireland derives from a combination of publicly funded higher education institutions and the private sector. I am a bit concerned now because the new Atlantic Technological University campuses are well down the curve when it comes to developing accommodation like that provided by colleges such as Trinity College Dublin, UCD and NUIG. We need to do an awful lot more to progress this lack of accommodation. It just is not there. Given all the reports the Department has had and all the reports it is doing, and we are awaiting a report, I do not know if it is quick enough. I really think we need to do a lot more in understanding.
The rent-a-room relief was increased to €14,000 in 2017. That has certainly helped. Ms Nugent talked of the technological university sector student accommodation programme delivering regionally balanced and campus-specific projects. What are the HEA and the Department doing to help those areas that need a bit more help?
I have another query I wish to have answered today. We must ensure that the lack of accommodation does not act as a barrier to people accessing education. There is one thing we tend to neglect, which is the rural transport initiative. Certainly, in areas we have buses coming from Ballinamore, Ballyshannon, Boyle, Drumshanbo and Ballaghaderreen, and further afield. This has certainly helped with student accommodation because people are living at home and they can use the buses. This has helped, in a small way, to alleviate the damaging effect of the lack of accommodation.
I thank the witnesses for their great work and I look forward to their answers.
Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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It was Benbulben Court.
Mr. Paul Lemass:
It is very disappointing when such properties are taken out of the sector. There is a need for flexibility, nonetheless, given pressures in other sectors as well. That is the reality of international protection, IP, and the beneficiaries of temporary protection, BOTPs. This is the reality of the accommodation situation they are in. We have a protocol with the Department of children. It will now move to the Department of justice . We will engage with them on a regular basis and we will highlight where there is a student need, and there absolutely is in all of these cases. Our preference would be that they remain in purpose-built student accommodation.
Looking forward, I can tell the Deputy that in the future the class of purpose-built student accommodation is an identified class for planning purposes. If one gets planning permission to build purpose-built student accommodation, that is what one must use it for. If the applicant wanted to get changes then he or she would need a change in planning. Heretofore that was not the case and it was too easy for developments to be used for different things. That would have changed once purpose-built student accommodation, PBSA, was designated as a specific class.
On the rent-a-room scheme, we absolutely believe in the potential of the rent-a-room scheme. It was going reasonably well before Covid and then during Covid obviously for health reasons people did not want to share rooms or houses and we did get a setback then. There has been a major effort since then to promote the rent-a-room scheme. We have collaborated well with students' unions locally and with local accommodation offices to promote the rent-a-room scheme. Every year the Department runs a campaign in August to make property owners aware, if they have a spare bedroom, of the potential of the scheme. In September, once the CAO offers are out and students know where they are going the campaign makes them aware that this accommodation is an option. Ms Nugent referred earlier to the survey we did. A significant number of students are residing in digs accommodation. It is an important part of the solution.
Deputy Feighan mentioned the Atlantic Technological University, ATU, campuses and their capacity. The HEA is working with the ATU and all of the technological universities. The technological university sector student accommodation programme works with all five of the technical universities to try to support them. It is taking a national horizontal approach in that they are all being developed together. That sometimes takes a little longer to get started but once we build momentum, as we have seen with the public private partnerships, PPPs, that are already commenced, it really does move at a reasonable pace.
The Deputy also mentioned travel. We have worked quite closely with the Department of Transport. Our Department does a regional engagement process every year where we go out to five regional locations. This year we went to Waterford, Galway, Tullamore, Tralee and Dublin. We met various stakeholders. We usually bring in the local authority, the education and training boards, ETBs, and the higher education institutes. Last year we also brought in representatives from the travel sector, including Local Link, because we wanted to work with them to help them understand from a university perspective and from an ETB's perspective the challenge that students were facing. We are very alive to that. We have also participated in the Department of Transport's moving together programme.
Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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We might come back on that, but we are out of time.
Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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We will go very briefly to Mr. McCaffrey, but we can come back to it.
Mr. Ciaran McCaffrey:
I thank the Deputy for the question. On the rural transport issue, I am from the periphery of some of the areas the Deputy mentioned. We know the impact transport has in terms of accessibility to education. My colleague Ms Nugent referred to our surveys in her opening statement.
We did engage extensively with the NTA in trying to map some of those transport routes. It is a piece of work we got so far on. It is planned that we will further develop it in the next iteration of the survey in the coming years. It is definitely something we see great value in and would like to progress.
Laura Harmon (Labour)
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I thank the officials for being here today. I apologise for being late. I was at another engagement. It is an important and timely discussion on student accommodation. This has been an ongoing issue for students for over a decade. I was the president of the Union of Students in Ireland ten years ago. This was a big issue then and it is more of an issue now with the wider housing crisis on top of it. I recently worked representing international students as well and I know there are a number of challenges there. The issue of scamming is a huge issue for students. For students coming here from overseas, we need to raise awareness about rental scams, pre-arrival expectations around accommodation and rights. It is important. I am interested to know if they have any views on this issue.
In terms of the report itself, it is clear there is a shortfall of public beds and public accommodation spaces. Cork is lagging considerably behind Limerick and Dublin in terms of publicly owned student housing. I am interested in hearing the witnesses' comments, particularly in relation to Cork city. I have been engaging with the colleges and student unions there as well. With regard to the expansion of publicly owned accommodation for the technological universities sector, I know their capacity to borrow funds is an issue. It is a matter I have been raising with the Minister as well.
In terms of a new student accommodation strategy, what is the timeline for its publication? The Minister has committed that it will be finalised by the end of the year and he hoped it would be finalised by the end of the summer. There needs to be more joined-up thinking between the Department of housing and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in relation to the strategy.
Mr. Paul Lemass:
I thank Senator Harmon for her questions. The strategy was informed by the needs and demands study. The output was tracking quite well with the strategy until Covid struck, and Covid has set us back; there are no two ways about it. What was planned before Covid got built during Covid because there was a dispensation given for construction to continue. Developers looking at Covid clearly got a shock, and as soon as it was over they got a second shock through Ukraine, the cost of living and inflation. We have undoubtedly been set back and that is why the Department set up the dedicated unit to get involved.
With regards to scamming, we have developed with the students' union guidelines for digs accommodation for both the licensee and the property owner. We have also developed a draft licence agreement and made it available to all of the HEIs so they would make it available to anyone coming in, either as a property owner on Studentpad, or whatever the various systems are, or as a student coming so they will be fully aware of the checklist of things they need to have regard to.
The issue in respect of Cork has come up previously. We did speak to UCC, in particular, regarding the short-term activation programme. At the time, it highlighted that there were a lot of private developments, as well as one of its own in the Crow's Nest, which were coming to completion. It felt that the numbers completed between the two - public and private - were meeting the level of demand at the time and it did not make a proposal to participate in the short-term activation programme.
On the borrowing framework, we are in the throes of the NDP negotiations and that will inform part of our response to the funding need. The other part of the response will come through the programme itself when we see the types of proposals that are being made, whether it is for vacancy or leasing, or on-campus or off-campus PBSA. That will wash out off the programme. We are consulting with the Department of housing on the quarter 3 strategy and we hope to have it published in quarter 3.
Mr. Ciaran McCaffrey:
From the data we collect, Cork is unique in that there is quite a significant portion of private sector PBSA held there. It is probably one of the reasons why the institution has not delivered. If you look across the four major urban centres, namely, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Cork, as a percentage of PBSA per student population, it is one of the higher ones. It is up around 27%, whereas the next closest is around 24%. That is probably the reason the institution does not have the same level of PBSA. As Mr. Lemass stated, UCC was in the throes of delivering its Crow's Nest development around the time when the short-term activation programme was initiated. That is one of the reasons it was not in a position to participate in it.
Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the witnesses and thank them for coming in. I have been speaking to a lot of students' unions. UCD students' union has said the nature of the two-tier student experience is no longer the norm; it has become a privilege. It is also saying that students are under severe stress. They are feeling isolated and lonely. This is because they are commuting because they cannot find accommodation. It limits their social opportunities. They cannot socialise on campus because they either have to go home or to digs.
There needs to be regulation around digs. We are becoming over-reliant on them. Some 71.9% of TUS students in digs do not have a contract. It is shocking to think that a student is in a room and has no security. The horror stories coming out of those digs need to be heard. They are really bad. Students are saying that they do not know who is sleeping in their bed at the weekend. In fact, one student came away with an illness because of it. They can only use certain rooms in the house. They have no lock on their door. They feel unsafe. We need to put in regulations around digs whether we like it or not. The licence is not enough for that. Some 35% said that their landlord kept the deposit unfairly, which is also part of the scam. As 42% of people do not receive funding, they are stuck in whatever digs they end up in. They are afraid to complain because they are afraid of losing their accommodation. No matter how bad it is, they are afraid to speak up about it. They should never have to feel like this.
Some students are taking up courses which are closer to home because they have no choice. This means they are doing courses they do not want to do. This is wrong. Some 41.5% are living with parents. They are adults. They do not want to live with their parents. They want to be able to have the whole social aspect of college, rather than having a long commute in the morning and another in the evening. They are not getting to experience what it feels like to be a student. According to students in Galway, students are being tied down by increasing costs, a rental system that favours landlords, and legislation that does little to protect them.
I note from the opening statements that €100 million was put into the short-term activation programme and up to 1,000 new PBSA beds are to be delivered, with 116 beds on track to be delivered for the 2025-26 academic year. How long it will take to put in the 1,000 beds if only 116 are being delivered in one year? I do not get how this can be described as short-term. I know the Department is operating under constraints and its officials are trying their best, but that is not good enough. Students feel that they are not being listened to and are being kicked to the kerb. Just over 12% say that this Government cares about students. That is the impact this is having on students' lives. They need to be listened to and we need to do more for them.
Mr. Paul Lemass:
UCD is one of three universities that are part of the short-term accommodation programme.
It has a proposal in for 493 beds. Mr. McCaffrey might be able to speak a little further on that in a moment. The decision is imminent and there is a very capable buildings unit to deliver it.
Deputy McGettigan also talked about the commute. Without repeating it, I refer her to my earlier answer about our engagement with Local Link to try to ensure that commuting is made as easy as possible. The survey the HEA undertook was to understand the extent to which people were commuting, both in terms of numbers and distance.
As regards the regulation of digs, what we have is a set of guidelines for both the licensee and the property owner, plus a draft licence agreement that could be entered into. We have worked with the universities to try to help them to work with students so that they are not going into places that are unsuitable and they have a clear understanding before they go into a place of what they are getting into and whether it is five-day or seven-day accommodation. Deputy McGettigan suggested that we did not know who was in it at the weekend. That is the nature of an arrangement between the two parties. That is not something-----
Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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If I can just interrupt, there are no regulations. Students do not feel safe or secure. There is no secure tenure for them. They can be put out on the street at any time. They are also afraid to speak up because they could be put out. The accommodation pool is bad but students are afraid to speak up in case they lose it. There must be some sort of regulatory protection for students, and the landlord as well. There must be protection on both sides. Licences and guidelines are just not good enough.
Mr. Paul Lemass:
Part of the reason that we have set up a dedicated student accommodation unit is because we recognise that there is a challenge and a deficit and we are looking to fill a lot of that deficit, not only through digs accommodation, but also purpose-built student accommodation. That is what we are working on.
I will not say a whole lot more on short-term accommodation. It has been a challenging process in a very high inflationary context to get the kind of movement that we would have hoped on the short-term programme. Some 116 beds will be ready for September. Perhaps Mr. McCaffrey could speak to the others in that process.
Mr. Ciaran McCaffrey:
We could not agree more with what Deputy McGettigan says about the students to whom she has listened. More than 35,000 students responded to the survey we carried out over two years. We held focus groups at various stages involving students, parents and various stakeholders to get their views to try to inform the work we were doing and to feed it to our colleagues in the Department who were involved in the formation of the student accommodation strategy, which is due. Some really valuable information is being collated and it will hopefully inform the strategy.
On the short-term activation programme, UCD has gone through its internal governance processes as part of the procurement process and it is now with the HEA for decision. That will be happen in the very near future. As my colleague Mr. Lemass says, a decision on it is imminent. The other scheme in the short-term activation programme is in DCU, which is for 405 beds. That is currently going through the governance processes of the institution.
Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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Is there a timeline on them?
Mr. Paul Lemass:
As regards students with bad experiences, universities work through websites like Studentpad and the practice has been that if a student makes a complaint, then the university will prevent that property from being rented again. The property will be removed from the Studentpad website, or equivalent, and it will not be allowed on it again. There is some measure of control by the university to ensure that rogue landlords, if you like, are not encouraged into the system.
Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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The problem is that a lot of students are afraid to complain in case they lose their places. That is a real concern for them.
Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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That is the case. That is the reality.
Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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I still say that regulations must be put in place.
John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I have a couple of questions based on the introductory statements. I hope I am reading the statements accurately. Has the unmet demand of 25,000 beds, which was projected in 2014, come to pass or could it be worse than that? One of the factors outlined in the 2014 strategy to drive the demand was the attraction of Ireland to international students. Anecdotally, that may have surpassed what we expected it to be, which places further demand on the system. Does the level of unmet demand at the moment exceed 25,000? I am concerned about that.
Do all third level institutions have accommodation offices and their own accommodation strategies? Do they have sufficient staff within the institutions to develop strategies and to provide the day-to-day assistance to students, in particular new students who are looking for accommodation?
Do we have any sense of whether the unmet demand is from new students? Is it all first years? Is there an advantage to being a returning student in terms of gaining access to accommodation? Is the burden more heavily placed on first year students attending a third level institution in terms of their inability to access accommodation?
Other than the short-term activation measures programme, do we have any sense of the existing capacity and landholdings of the third level institutions that could be put to use for student accommodation? Do we have any estimation of how many units could be provided?
I welcome the fact that the student accommodation strategy will be published this year. One of the issues the Minister, Deputy James Lawless, has consistently spoken about is a template for a standard design. Have we progressed that and will the strategy include it? Given the recent debate on minimum standards, will we now see an increase in the number of units that can be provided?
Mr. Paul Lemass:
I will take the early ones and then hand over to Mr. McCaffrey. On the scale of the gap that was estimated at 25,000, I mentioned earlier that the response to that was working quite well. Some 10,000 units were provided up to 2019. That was knocked back a bit when Covid hit. That is why the unit was set up. We are trying to respond to that now. We are still working on the modelling for the next ten years – from 2025 to 2035 – and that will feature in the long-term strategy. It is not quite ready yet. There is clearly a growing demand. We have introduced the technological universities since the initial analysis was undertaken, so that will undoubtedly increase the level of demand. That is something that will feature in the long-term strategy.
Generally speaking, a university would either have an accommodation office or the students union would handle queries relating to accommodation. Not all universities have a dedicated accommodation office. We have put aside €1 million in the Estimates to support the development of accommodation capacities within HEIs, because we want them to have that capacity.
I do not have stats on returning students but perhaps Mr. McCaffrey could help there. Nor do I have stats on the landholdings.
It is absolutely the case that we want standardised designs to be used. The feedback we have been getting from students is that, in some cases, the accommodation is perhaps more than they want and something more modest would be adequate. The standardised design work has looked at things like the use of en suite bathrooms and the size of kitchen-living-dining areas, and there is more work to come on that. Section 28 planning guidelines will be issued to ensure that, when applications for planning permission are made, they are made with the new guidelines in mind. We hope that reducing the space requirement will impact on the cost and that in turn will impact on affordability.
Mr. Ciaran McCaffrey:
I will come in on a few small points. The Deputy talks about the cohort of students in purpose-built student accommodation. The surveys we have done suggest that the majority of first years tend to be housed in purpose-built student accommodation. Around 35% of respondents surveyed reside in purpose-built student accommodation and a significant proportion of those are first-year students.
On whether we know about the potential capacity of accommodation that could be built on university-owned land, we have done quite a lot of work on the short-term activation programme, so we know there is a pipeline of proposals as part of that programme and we will assess them as we go through with the various bits of due diligence. There is a master plan for most of the universities and some of them include student accommodation. Some have sites proximate to them that are ideal for student accommodation also.
John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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On that last point, I see it as very important for the development of the strategy that we know the lands third level institutions have access to and that there is some incentive - in accordance with their zoning - for these lands to be used for student accommodation. All the third level institutions have their own infrastructure plans and want to see enhanced education facilities. Given the shortfall we are experiencing, however, we must ensure the development of accommodation is equal to future university plans.
Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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I thank Ms Nugent, Mr. McCaffrey and Mr. Lemass for those reports and the extra detail. I welcome the few points made in relation to the extra investment, though it is somewhat modest concerning the number of beds. The rent-a-room relief scheme is a very good, sensible model that ticks many boxes for many things apart from more affordable accommodation. My preference would be for a major emphasis on State-funded accommodation on campus aimed at the local student body.
In her report, Ms Nugent highlighted the large demand from international student places as providing quite a challenge. I would like to get some further detail on this issue. From what I can see, there is probably an overreliance or overdependence on a privatised model, where international students are paying very high fees, up to €30,000, which is probably distorting the market. It is not just distorting it in terms of the provision of places for people in this country but also in terms of the accommodation overall. I think one figure was mentioned in the larger report of privateers putting in €1 billion in investment. Is that the figure from private sources? I think that type of a model is just fraught with danger. Education should be something affordable and State-funded, not for profit. I represent the constituency of Wicklow-Wexford and I do not want to see fewer places for the younger people I have been teaching there if some privateer is importing large numbers of students and charging them astronomical levels of fees. They have the cash power, perhaps, to pay much more for accommodation, so they and the local students are getting ripped off. If any more detail is available on this matter, I would like to see it.
I refer to the report from my colleague Deputy McGettigan on the Technological University of the Shannon. We had those students up here last week when Deputy McGettigan hosted them. Of those students, 41% said they were forced to live at home, 71% of those in digs said they did not have any security or contracts, 90% said they were very frustrated at difficulties in finding accommodation and 70% said they believed the Government did not care about students. Those were their views. If fees are to increase by another €1,000, that would be a great worry.
There are so many different areas we could look at, but on the whole public-versus-private funding model in terms of courses and accommodation, will the witnesses give me a little bit more detail on this issue and how it is providing a challenge? This would worry me. I also see that, in another section to do with the target audience, there is a point about where investment is being made. I would like to get a bit more information on that point, if it is available. I would like a little bit more of a breakdown of the 30% cohort.
Mr. Paul Lemass:
I will try to take what I can and I will ask my colleagues from the HEA to come in as well. In terms of State-funded on-campus accommodation, it is important to note that we reckon there are about 49,000 purpose-built student accommodation beds in the country. One third of them - 16,000 - are owned, developed and operated by publicly owned HEIs. The private sector has come in and played a role, but there is a significant amount of on-campus, purpose-built student accommodation. Even in the last year, the University of Galway opened 624 beds. A couple of years before that, UCD opened a big number of beds, although I cannot remember the exact figure. There is active development on campuses, but it is because of the viability and cost challenges that the State has had to step in a little bit more.
On the international aspect, the Department's view would be that the international dimension is a fundamental part of the education experience. Irish people go abroad to study and people from abroad come to Ireland. This is the nature and diversity of the educational experience. It is inherent in almost all universities around the globe, the progressive universities that want to bring in thinking from different parts of the world. We kind of feel the international aspect must be embraced. However, to reassure the Deputy, any of our modelling about demand and the size of the gap Deputy Connolly referred to will include any student registered on a course in a publicly owned HEI regardless of where he or she comes from. If the student is on that course, we recognise that accommodation needs are there.
Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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I am sorry for interrupting, but can Mr. Lemass see the big problem there could be if a private university got a vastly higher level of fees? If students from India or wherever are being charged a great amount of fees, there will obviously be a far greater incentive for that institution to go further down that route. It is more profitable.
Mr. Paul Lemass:
My colleagues from the HEA would have the better statistics, but I think all CAO applicants, or the vast majority of them, got one of their top three choices, so I do not think any presence of students from abroad is impacting on the ability of Irish students to get places in college. When it comes to the actual scaling of the demand, I reassure the Deputy that the models we are developing will include all sources of demand on registered courses, whether the student happens to be from Ireland, the EU or elsewhere internationally. The full demand will be captured.
Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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In terms of accommodation, if there was a far greater increase in demand versus supply, does Mr. Lemass recognise that the natural law of economics would mean the cost would go up?
Mr. Paul Lemass:
That is the point. The overall demand we are estimating for includes the international students. Regarding the costs, Deputy Connolly referred to the standardised design. Things like this are designed to reduce costs. We hope that having a floor area reduced by 2.5 sq. m per bedroom will contribute to a lower construction cost. We expect to see, therefore - certainly in the units we support as a State - a reduced cost because of this standardised design. We are conscious of the cost, of course we are, and we are doing what we can to address it.
Deputy Ó Súilleabháin spoke about 41% of students living at home at TU Shannon. I do not have a copy of that report, but I do know that one of the goals of the development of the technological university sector was to ensure students could attend university closer to home. We now have universities with campuses right around the country. The Atlantic Technological University has campuses in Letterkenny, Sligo, Galway and other places, too. It is possible, therefore, for people to attend university without leaving home and this was one of the drivers to ensure balanced regional development, so I think that is part of the context.
Regarding the allocation of the 30% of accommodation, we would be informed by the national access plan, which includes things like HEAR and DARE students. Mr. McCaffrey might wish to comment further on a few things.
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.
Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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I am sorry to have been popping in and out, but we have some votes going on in the Seanad. I was listening to their opening statements in my office earlier, though, so I thank them for those contributions. I appreciate that. I apologise if I repeat some of the queries put to the witnesses in my absence.
I am from Limerick where we have an array of very fine institutes that are a key component to our local economy. As the flexibility of higher education institutes in working with industry as key partners and stakeholders in helping us to develop modules that are specific to the clusters of industry in the region has been a factor in our rising employment levels and in the growth of Limerick in the past number of years, I thank the witnesses for their work in supporting those.
I am interested in accommodation, as we all are, particularly when I consider the impact the current lack of accommodation is having on students and residents alike in the areas around the universities and TUs. I commend the witnesses on the work they have done so far. I look forward to the publication of the survey and the results and seeing their plans for a regional approach to forecasting demand for student places in the coming years and the impact that will have on accommodation. I expect work is being done to co-ordinate with the Department of Transport and that this will be transport-led development. In Limerick, BusConnects has taken into consideration the seats of learning. Has the Department put thought into parking and park-and-ride facilities in the vicinities near to where accommodation is planned?
We are placing extra demand on the universities and the educational institutions now to produce accommodation at a level they have not been asked to do previously. Are they equipped to rise to that challenge and meet that? If so, great. If not, what gaps do we need to allow for and budget for to support them with?
Mr. Paul Lemass:
I thank the Senator for those questions. Her opening remarks on the impact of accommodation on students is why the Government set up and tasked this Department with addressing the student accommodation issues specifically, and that is why we have a dedicated unit, members of which are here with me today, working exclusively on student accommodation. It is also why we kicked off the short-term accommodation programme, of which there are no projects in Limerick. A couple were looked at, but they did not get off the ground. It has projects in Maynooth, DCU and UCD, totalling 1,016 beds.
Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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I will jump in there before Mr. Lemass goes on to answer my query on parking. That is just the reality. I have to raise it. I know we are supposed to, and of course we will, promote public transport and active travel as viable means but the reality is many students are commuting from long distances and from unusual locations and have to travel in cars. Therefore, to prevent the increased build-up of stress on residents, it is important that we provide adequate parking for students. Indeed, I would be in favour of over-providing for parking because we can use that space in alternative ways in the future.
On the short-term strategy, what specific sites were looked at in Limerick? Could Mr. Lemass give me a little more information on what was looked at in Limerick?
Mr. Paul Lemass:
The University of Limerick made two proposals to us. In both cases, if I recall correctly, there were alternative uses by an approved housing body and the developer chose to go with the alternative use through the approved housing body. It was the developer who walked away from the deal.
Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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That is a pity. I am aware that we have a number of planning permissions granted but not activated in and around the areas where TUS and UL are located, so I was wondering if the Department had engaged with any of those landowners. Would it be for the Department to engage or for the university to engage and bring it to the Department?
Mr. Paul Lemass:
It would be for the university to engage. This is the short-term programme, which was simply people who had planning permission on campus. For the longer term technological sector student accommodation programme, the HEA has gone out to all the technological universities and asked them to identify proposals. That could be purpose-built on campus, purpose-built off campus, vacancy or leasing. We are happy to look at the whole range of proposals.
Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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On skills and resources internally within the education institutes, what are Mr. Lemass’s thoughts initially on this?
Mr. Paul Lemass:
The technological sector, in particular, is building up its skills. The established traditional universities generally have building departments and, in some cases, very well resourced and very competent building departments that can handle multimillion euro projects on their own and are doing it. The TU sector is a newer sector. It is building up its capacity. It is currently in the process of recruiting a senior management team. It, therefore, needs that level of support. The HEA works closely with all of the TUs in developing any of their projects.
Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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This is my last question. Because the local authority has a role in approving these planning permissions, which we hope will be a smoother process now with the standardised designs, should there be a role for the local authorities in setting targets for them in respect of student accommodation, much in the same way we set social housing and affordable housing targets? Should we be recognising this as an important cohort in our communities for which minimum targets should be set?
Mr. Paul Lemass:
We are working with the universities, and the universities are the ones that best understand the nature of the demand and are, in many cases, in the best position to respond to it, either themselves or working with others. Our approach heretofore has not been with the local authorities, although we do bring the local authorities into the process. We do an annual set of engagements around the country. We go and visit five locations around the country every year to discuss capital works with ETBs, higher education institutes and local authorities. We bring local authority planners to those engagements so that they are in at the ground floor, if you will. This year we went to Waterford, Tralee, Galway, Tullamore and Dublin. We did five other locations last year and five others the year before. The whole purpose is to make sure that universities and local authorities have a clear understanding of each other’s priorities and that the local authorities, which know the local areas very well, can intervene and support the university in developing accommodation. Heretofore, that is as far as it has gone.
Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the witnesses for the presentations. I refer to the 2015 Higher Education Authority report that was referenced in the opening statement. It was said that there was an unmet demand of 25,000 bed spaces at that time. What is the unmet demand now? Have there been other reports? Mr. Lemass seemed to suggest this was a one-off report. I note a strategy came from that in 2017, I presume to address the unmet need of 25,000 spaces. Should this not have been monitored on an ongoing basis, with reports continually, to see what the unmet need was? Was it done? Perhaps Mr. Lemass can clarify that. What is the current unmet need?
Mr. Paul Lemass:
The 2015 analysis by the HEA was factored into the student accommodation strategy from 2017 to 2024. In that strategy, it projected a level of supply coming against it. In the early years, the supply was tracking well with demand – 8,000 beds added by 2019 against the 2017 numbers, and almost 10,000 by the end of 2020. Then Covid-19 hit and knocked us back. Frankly, we have struggled to recover. That is why the Government asked the Department to become involved directly in student accommodation. Heretofore, as I mentioned in my opening statement, we had relied on the universities themselves and on the private sector. From now, the Department is taking a more active role because of the fact that there was a setback through Covid-19, compounded by the cost-of-living crisis and the inflation that went with it. That is why the Department is involved now.
Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)
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Did Mr. Lemass say it was 10,000 by 2020? That is still not meeting the need, and I presume the need continued to rise as well as we see increased numbers going to further and higher education.
Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)
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I presume it is significantly greater than the 25,000.
Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)
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Mr. Lemass is not answering what he thinks it is.
Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)
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Some of my colleagues referenced the No Room for Learning report from the students’ union at the Technological University of the Shannon, titled such because there are many demands around accommodation.
I am sure their findings are reflected across the country in all the different colleges. Many students are commuting and not by choice. Many are working part time and up to 30 hours a week. Their studies are being adversely affected by this and they are dropping out in some cases because of tiredness either from the commuting or the working. An increased number of students are choosing courses based on location rather than what they want to do. My own son said to me there is no point in him looking to go to Dublin to study because he will not be able to get accommodation. That is not correct. It should not be the case. It is something very serious that we need to address.
The standard and quality of student accommodation has come up as well. It can be quite poor. Who is responsible for inspections for accommodation? Is it the local authority, as with the ordinary private rental market? I ask that with regards to college-based accommodation and in the private market as well. Planning given for student accommodation was mentioned and how change of use should not be allowed but that has happened before where student accommodation has been built, exorbitant rents were charged, nobody takes up the accommodation, and then they claim there is no demand so they need a change of use. Are there protections in place to prevent that happening now?
Mr. Paul Lemass:
We absolutely recognise there is a shortfall in accommodation. That is why the Department is getting involved. That is why we put €100 million in so far, with, hopefully more to come through an NDP outcome. The establishment of technological universities was very much meant to bring education closer to where the learner is. The idea we now have five technological universities, four of which are outside of Dublin and many on multiple campuses, means the capacity to attend when living at home has increased for those attending technological universities. We absolutely recognise there is a gap, and an affordability challenge as well. I will revert to the Senator regarding inspections. My understanding is it falls to the operator to inspect the properties. Regarding change of use, the current planning provisions are such that one would have to apply for purpose-built student accommodation and apply for a change of use were one to wish to change it from that. Heretofore, the designation of purpose-built student accommodation was not quite as rigid and, therefore, people were able to take student accommodation and use it for other purposes but planning changes have addressed that looking forward to new developments. The Senator's point is well made: there are existing developments, such as the one Deputy Feighan talked about earlier, where things have been taken out of the student market. We do work with colleagues in the Department of children. We have a protocol with them. We have asked that anything they would contract for service would be vacant for a period of at least a year. The purpose of that was to demonstrate there was not a demand there. Ultimately, we cannot prevent a private owner of a property doing what they will with it, but we have agreed with the Department of children, now the Department of justice, that they would not contract where there was a student occupancy or it had not been vacant for at least a year.
Mr. Ciaran McCaffrey:
To reiterate the point, we see some of the issues the Senator talked about. In the survey where we engaged with students, 50% said student accommodation was a factor in where they select courses. That is information we are collating and trying to model to feed to the Department for the strategy that is going to be published later on and to put some numbers around where we are going in the future. Regarding higher educational institutions, they are responsible as the operator for their student accommodation.
Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)
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A lot of students do not want to live at home when they are experiencing third level.
Mike Kennelly (Fine Gael)
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I apologise for being late. A lot is going on as well this evening. I thank the witnesses for their opening statements. Student accommodation is an issue that did not happen overnight. In terms of supply and demand, it is the housing sector on wheels. The statement states 5,000 beds were delivered during the Covid-19 pandemic but completions have since dropped. I find that very alarming. Based on the evidence that student accommodation was in severe demand, no matter what the costs were around providing accommodation, seeing that there was a drop in the provision for student accommodation seems a really retrograde move and one we could be paying for. How many of the technological sector student accommodation projects will move to construction this year? When will we see the long-promised student accommodation strategy with a real timeline and funding behind it?
I welcome the affordability of the 41-week tenancy, and the 28-day notice period is real progress and has to be welcomed. I am from what is classified as a disadvantaged area. If students cannot afford the rent, these protections are meaningless. The only option was to increase supply. In my eyes, that did not happen. We had incidents and wars and migration. I am from north Kerry and MTU has been a transformation for higher education accessibility. It has been fantastic and it is growing and growing. It was growing during the Covid-19 pandemic and the post-Covid period but unfortunately the accommodation was not there. Senator Ryan just made a fierce connection there with future accommodation and how we corridor these students in from that region into those three campuses. During one of those crises I mentioned, there was a bus connection from outside north Kerry going to Tralee. It took us about three months before a double-decker bus had to be put in situ. The students could not get there. That has to be looked at. I welcome the return of accommodation back into Tralee. As late as yesterday I was leaving Kerry and the MTU was advertising on local radio, looking for people to present themselves for the rent-a-room scheme. I wonder, is there a real lack of accommodation for the MTU students? As I see it, student levels in Tralee are rising and rising. Is there a crisis? The witnesses mentioned local authorities and they got involved on foot of the promise of the Government to sort it out. Are the local authorities the real stumbling block regarding planning and future planning and planning applications that have been already granted?
Mr. Paul Lemass:
Regarding the 5,000 beds during the pandemic, projects which were ready to go on site were given permission for construction to continue during the pandemic. Clearly, investors were spooked by Covid-19. People could not attend university for almost two years. It meant they built out what was there during the pandemic but after they stepped back to see what would stabilise. Then, of course, the inflation from the war impacted on that.. That is why the section was set up to focus exclusively on this area. Regarding when we will see output on the short-term activation programme, we will see 116 beds in Maynooth in September. They are already completed and taken over by Maynooth University. Separately on that programme, my colleague will comment on the UCD and DCU progress, where we have 493 and 405 beds, respectively. In the longer term, the technological sector student accommodation programme is at preliminary business-case stage, where individual HEIs have to set out exactly what their proposal is and get into a bit more detail, including on where they propose to develop their proposals. There was a question earlier about land. The long-term strategy will be completed in quarter 3 and will absolutely be informed by funding, which we are in the throes of negotiating at the moment as part of the national development plan negotiations. We agree with the Senator regarding affordability. Affordability and supply are absolutely linked and must be part of the thing. The Senator talked about the bus connection in north Kerry to Tralee.
Every year, we go out to five regional locations to work with the universities, ETBs and local authorities. We specifically want the local authorities in the room with us at each of those five locations. This year, we were in Waterford, Galway, Tullamore, Tralee and Dublin. In Tralee, there were stakeholders like UCC, MTU Tralee, MTU Cork, local authority representatives from Cork and Kerry - I am not sure who was there was exactly - and people from the ETBs. The whole purpose of that was to talk about capital works, share experience and facilities, and draw on the experience of the planners and demands of the universities so that there was a shared understanding of what was needed. We do that in five locations every year and we always pull in such people.
We work with the Department of justice on accommodation that has exited the sector. I know that the Kings Court complex in Tralee that was referred to has come back in. We believe as many as 1,800 units have come back into the sector. We have agreed a protocol with the Department of justice so that people cannot just be bidding against themselves and the unit has to be empty for a year before anyone can secure a contract for international protection or Ukrainian refugees.
Mr. Ciaran McCaffrey:
I will come in on the point about the short-term activation programme. The UCD scheme is currently with us and that is for 493 beds. We expect to see progress and construction commencement on that imminently. The other scheme of 405 beds in DCU is working its way through the governance process for the institution as well.
On resourcing, institutions have been amalgamated. The senior management teams are being put in place and the various different functions are being built out. As that happens, student accommodation is an element. Mr. Lemass mentioned resourcing for institutions. That is something we expect to progress, along with the bus programme. As part of some of the research studies we did, we had extensive engagement with the National Transport Authority. There is a piece of work underway there on planning and transport routes that I hope will be more beneficial for students in certain catchment areas.
Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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I thank everybody for attending. I apologise that I was not here for the opening statements. I was in the Chamber speaking on something else but I read the opening statements and I have a couple of questions. When the preparation was being done for what was going to happen, did the Department look to other countries and how they provided student accommodation? Did it take best practice from there? I know there is mixed-use accommodation throughout the EU. It would be interesting to see how the Department landed on the type it is going to do and whether there will be a variety in that.
Change of use for student accommodation was mentioned earlier. My constituency of Dublin South-Central seems to be central for student accommodation of the private variety, which costs a lot of money. When my daughter was about 12 years old and student accommodation was being built, she asked me if she would be living in there. I replied there was absolutely no way. She would be living at home because student accommodation was too expensive. She is living at home and not living in student accommodation in her university. That student accommodation is used for tourist accommodation during the summer months. While I understand that is allowed, is it not an awful shame that students cannot have their full experience of being a student and the freedom to go off and work in the summer months or do other things like explore different parts of their lives? They have to move out and go somewhere else. Will that change and will those accommodation providers, even though they are private, no longer be able to do that?
When it is State-sponsored student accommodation, does that affect the cost for the student and does the Department have an understanding of how much that student accommodation will be? Will student accommodation be aligned to the economic reality of the day, which I know changes over time? Will there also be a differentiated cost for students who may be on the SUSI grant or for other reasons? I know international students always pay more for different things, there are SUSI grants and there are also other people. Has that been taken into consideration?
Mr. Paul Lemass:
Mr. McCaffrey might answer the standardised design question. I will pick up the other two, although he might want to come in on them.
On change of use and summer use, it is entirely open to a student to rent the accommodation for the full 51 weeks. The feedback we have received is that students did not want to stay for 51 weeks. In fact, they asked for legislation to be passed, which we did, to reduce the 51 weeks to 41 weeks. Heretofore, there was an expectation by some providers that a student would sign up for 51 weeks. That has now all changed and the student can only be asked to sign up for 41 weeks. Even with that, there is a notice period of 28 days. If a student wants to leave after a month, he or she can leave with a 28-day notice period. Having said that, if students approach a provider and say that, although they are there for 41 weeks, they would like to stay for 51 weeks, my understanding from the sector is that it would be far preferable for the sector if the students would stay. It is definitely not a problem. The summer use is an important part of the business model because it brings in additional revenue. If an operator was faced with the prospect of having students who wanted to stay for 51 weeks of the year and the operator did not have to go advertising or have vacant or void periods during the summer, I do not think it would object. That is the position on that one.
On the State-sponsored question, our objective is that 30% of the units where we support the short-term activation programme would be available at rents roughly 30% below market prices. That is currently being worked out with the relevant universities. Mr. McCaffrey might be able to say more on it. In the longer term strategy, we will be looking at affordability as well and we will be looking at other ways to approach affordability but for the short-term programme, that is the approach being taken.
Mr. Ciaran McCaffrey:
On the standardisation question, it is a really good one. As part of the study, we looked to various different countries that would probably be seen as being at the forefront of student accommodation development. We tasked the people we were working with to look at the UK, which would be considered a mature market, France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Canada. Across those countries, we looked at various different student accommodation locations of prominent universities. We tried to learn from those and incorporate the various different bits of good practice and stuff that would benefit our published standardised design. There are different culture experiences with student accommodation. In the US, dorms are pretty standard.
On the technological sector student accommodation programme, a piece of work ongoing at the minute is looking at the different delivery models to see whether there are any innovative ways in which student accommodation is delivered that we can learn and benefit from for the efficiency of the delivery of student accommodation.
Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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I am glad to see there is a dedicated unit for this. As I am sure the unit knows well, the problems that are out there need looking at. I agree with Senator Ryan that there should be more collaboration with local authorities. I was in MTU Cork last week and it ran its own park-and-ride system because there were a lot of issues with housing and people parking outside residences and blocking residents in. It might be worth asking MTU Cork what way that was set up. I was in Maynooth and it was delighted with the 116 units. I then went over to TU Dublin, which has zero. It has the land but it just cannot borrow, which shows the discrepancies there.
While I was in Cork, I was with UCC and it is the first in the world to get five green flags. I have to throw that in there. MTU also spoke about international students and the impact on the local economy as being €1 billion, but it had to turn away a lot of students because it just did not have the accommodation. There is also the issue of international students being used as cash cows, so there is a fine balance needed on that.
One thing I heard in all the places that I visited was that mental health issues were on the rise. That is down to both the cost and lack of accommodation.
Mr. Paul Lemass:
We acknowledge the importance of collaboration with local authorities. It is front and centre in our view of things.
The Deputy spoke about MTU Cork providing a park-and-ride service. As part of the interdepartmental Moving Together policy, there will be a park-and-ride pilot. It is being looked at as part of wider Government strategy.
I accept the point that several TUs do not have student accommodation on campus. In fact, only SETU Waterford does at the moment. That is why the HEA is developing the technological sector student accommodation programme. All of the TUs have proposals in, including, I am sure, the locations the Deputy referred to.
The point on mental health and the need for pastoral care is something we are very conscious of.
John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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On the technological sector student accommodation programme, 15 proposals are going forward from stage 1 to stage 2. Is that accurate? There were 53 proposals, including for purpose-built accommodation.
John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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They are not all progressing.
John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Are the best those that can return the highest number of units where the demand is?
John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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How long will the second stage of that process take - the assessment of those considered viable?
John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Of the 53, how many will progress to the second stage? Is that a fair way of looking at it?
John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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In response to Deputy McGettigan, I think I heard that all technical universities came forward with proposals but not all of them were being progressed.
Mr. Paul Lemass:
We may be comparing apples with oranges. There were 53 proposals but some could have been for vacancy, leasing, on-campus purpose-built student accommodation or off-campus purpose-built student accommodation. Part of the process of going through the preliminary business case is to evaluate them, look at the options and determine how to pick one option over the other. The most attractive will progress. We are in the thick of that at the moment.
John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Everybody accepts the urgency. I was surprised when the witness responded earlier that not every third level institution had an accommodation office. I welcome the additional €1 million in the Estimate this year for third level institutions to come forward. Is that €1 million specifically for third level institutions that currently do not have accommodation offices or is it for the other institutions to supplements theirs? I am wondering about the synergy that could be achieved from setting up one third level accommodation strategy office in Cork, Limerick and Galway rather than each of the individual institutions in those areas having one.
Mr. Paul Lemass:
In the long-term strategy, we will look for individual universities to adopt a policy on student accommodation, so they will have to develop their own policies for student accommodation. In the case of Limerick or Cork, that would involve collaboration with neighbouring universities. We hope to see these things worked out as part of that process, which we would fund through the €1 million fund we spoke about.
Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Connolly asked the questions that were on my mind. I thank the witness for explaining the phase 2 business case evaluation. We hope to see as many as possible come forward. What is phase 3? How do we bring forward whatever comes through from phase 2? Are timelines in place for that next phase?
Mr. Ciaran McCaffrey:
In phase 3, we will assess the proposals put forward at the next stage, make a determination as to those that are viable and then go through to delivery phase, depending on what form they take. For example, if it is higher education institution-developed, that would involve appointing design teams, procurement, commencement and construction.
Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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Given that we hope with the new design guide some of that work can be shortcut, will timelines and targets be established within those projects?
Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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For the projects that do not come through on the first assessment, what support will be given to the universities to improve them?
Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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I am from Limerick. We are very conscious that the TUs and their governance structures are new and as yet untested. My concern is that, naturally within the organs of the State, there would be a hesitancy about spending significant amounts of money with these unproven bodies. What are the HEA's thoughts on that? What is the sense in the Department?
Mr. Paul Lemass:
The HEA is taking a hands-on role with this programme. It is being managed centrally. In some of the more traditional developments in years gone by with the traditional universities that have a deep expertise in this area, one was able to allow them to lead and run with their own projects. Some have 100 staff in their buildings offices. They are big campuses with deep expertise. We recognise the TUs are not at that stage. Perhaps Mr. McCaffrey wants to speak as well, but this is why the HEA is taking a hands-on role and co-ordinating at a national level and all of the projects are managed together as part of a programme.
Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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Will they be given support in developing those building management offices, ensuring they are resourced adequately themselves?
Mr. Ciaran McCaffrey:
In the past number of years, there has been considerable ramping up of capital expenditure and those TUs have delivered some significant capital projects successfully. That competency has been building. The new management structures coming into place have been benefiting. There is consolidation and specialisation of expertise within estates units. That is developing quite strongly. As part of the programme, the additional support Mr. Lemass referenced is available to deliver the programme.
Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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I may have misrepresented it myself - I have confidence in my local TU. I am familiar with its governance structures and capable people are involved. My worry is that there would be hesitancy in allowing them to proceed. I can understand, naturally, how the Department might have developed that feeling.
Mr. Paul Lemass:
It is more a case of proceeding beyond the preliminary business case, where an institution demonstrates the case for accommodation, and determining the type of development it will be, for example, leased units from a private developer, off-campus or on-campus, or refurbished vacant property. Which of those routes is taken will inform the subsequent steps. There may be a large role for the higher education institution itself or it may be a smaller role.
Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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Following on from the comments of Deputies Connolly and McGettigan, the local authority is perhaps a pertinent body to be involved in co-ordinating that.
Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Are there any other questions?
Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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Modern building technologies can be used for very rapid builds. Are they being considered? There are quick ways of building units and there are slow ways of doing it. If you have to do it in an emergency, building technology is very good at the moment.
On IPAS accommodation, there have been a lot of reports over the past few years. It is a divisive issue with rampant speculation. In the report, the use of student accommodation for IPAS and BOTP accommodation is mentioned. There are plans to return 1,800 beds this year. Are there any details on when that will happen? What third level institutions are involved?
How many student accommodation beds will remain in use in IPAS or for BOTP?
Mr. Ciaran McCaffrey:
I will take the first part. The core function of the standardised design was to set out a clear understanding of what the student accommodation looks like to facilitate modern methods of construction. We hope when there is clarity on that some of the national providers of modern methods of construction solutions will have that information and be able to develop a model for that. It is definitely a core part of what we have been doing and aiming to achieve out of the standardised design piece of work. We had some conversations with certain people about that as well.
Mr. Paul Lemass:
On international protection or BOTP use, we have been advised by the Department of children and now the Department of justice that they are exiting contracts for 1,800 units. We are watching those units and seeing them being advertised, so gradually we are seeing them coming back on the market. They are private units, so we do not get to say how and when the owner of the units puts them back on the market, but we are seeing them. The example in Tralee is a good one, but there are similar examples in Cork, Limerick, Galway, Dublin and Sligo.
Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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How many student accommodation units remain in the system?
Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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How many student accommodation units will remain in IPAS after those have been returned? I think it was originally 5,000 that were moved.
Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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I thank Mr. Lemass.
Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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We have no other questions. I have one question, as a lot of things were covered this evening. Three things have come up. We want the availability, quality and cost of accommodation to be addressed. When the State puts money and resources into building accommodation for our students, what safeguards are we putting in to make sure the cost is as low as possible for the students? I lived in student accommodation a long time ago and it was extortionate back then. I can only imagine what it is like now. How are the Department and HEA making sure students are not ripped off in State-sponsored accommodation?
Mr. Paul Lemass:
Working through the business cases, getting an understanding of what it costs and the impact of the standardised design model we have developed will all play a part. I would not want to mislead the committee. There is a big viability challenge in any construction at the moment and costs have only gone one way in the past four or five years. While we are seeing a moderation in inflation, we are not seeing deflation, so costs are still very high. We will look at all options to try to reduce costs. That is all I can say because there is still a significant viability challenge. Somebody referred earlier to the 10,000 units in the pipeline that are not being activated. The reason they are not being activated is because people cannot make the business case stack up. There is a real viability challenge.
Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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On behalf of the committee, I thank the witnesses for coming in this evening, engaging with so many of our members and answering the questions so thoroughly.