Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Conway-Walsh knows, we are pursuing a new policy in regard to student accommodation. For the first time as a State, we are going to invest in getting under way projects that have been stuck and building college-owned affordable accommodation. We will update the Cabinet committee on housing on this next week. I am meeting representatives of the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, this afternoon on it. As the Deputy will know, we took a number of cost-of-living measures in the budget, such as the first reduction in the contribution fee in more than two decades. I think I put the same amount of new funding into core funding that Sinn Féin proposed in its alternative budget.

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