Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is an important question on an important issue. We all know that we need to dramatically increase the supply of all types of housing and accommodation. This obviously has a direct impact on students. This is why, when the Government launched the Housing for All policy, which is led by my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, we set out a series of actions that will be delivered to address the housing crisis. This plan is backed by the largest housing budget in the history of our State to transform our housing system, with funding exceeding €20 billion.

Since I became Minister, I and my Department officials have been engaged intensively with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and his Department, the wider higher education sector and stakeholders on student accommodation issues in the context of overall housing policy. In a welcome development, my engagement with the sector has indicated that hundreds of additional bed spaces are to be made available by institutions for the start of the forthcoming academic year. We believe this figure to be in the region of 600. In addition, the major development of 674 extra bed spaces, which is under way at the National University of Ireland, NUI, Galway, is expected to be delivered later in the academic year. Therefore, while fully accepting the challenges that exist, and of which there is no doubt, we will be starting this college year with more college and student accommodation than we did last year, and with the additional 674 beds coming on board from NUI Galway later in the academic year.

We must do much more than that, however, and the Deputy’s question gets to the heart of the matter. Looking to the medium-term and on the basis of the most recent data available to my Department, more than 40 separate, purpose-built student accommodation projects have been granted planning permission. Between them, they are capable of delivering approximately 10,500 bed spaces. Three of these projects relate to plans by HEIs. These are: University College Dublin, UCD, which has planning permission for 1,254 bed spaces; Dublin City University, DCU, which has planning permission for 1,234 bed spaces; and Maynooth University, which has planning permission for 117 bed spaces. What we must do now, though, and I have discussed this issue with the Deputy previously, is to ensure that a model is in place that enables those developments that are ongoing to progress. I will have a chance to come back in again with another contribution shortly, but I will be updating the Cabinet committee on housing next week regarding this matter.

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