Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Minister to reconsider bringing forward a new student accommodation strategy with affordability at its core. I acknowledge the different things he is doing, but we need a new student accommodation strategy to be able to tackle the extent of the problem we are facing. This issue cannot be separated from the issue of underfunding in higher education generally. Even on-campus accommodation was turned into another source of revenue for colleges to replace the public funding removed during austerity. It is not the fault of the individual institutions. These decisions were made at Government level. The on-campus accommodation charges nearly market rate because it is needed to cover the cost. It is used to attract the more lucrative students, to the point where some colleges give half of all on-campus accommodation to this relatively small body of students. We cannot build luxury accommodation. We have to build affordable accommodation for students.

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