Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister again for his response. I appreciate all of the information he has outlined. In the past week the Union of Students in Ireland led 20,000 students on campuses across Ireland to walk out of lectures in protest. Findings this week from the Irish student survey of engagement found that more than one third of students are contemplating dropping out. We can fairly easily assume that, in addition to mental health and the cost of living, the student accommodation crisis is playing a major part in this. The current national student accommodation strategy is now seven years out of date and the path forward is unclear. The Minister has committed to scrapping and replacing this strategy, but we saw no funding provided in budget 2023. Will the Minister commit to scrapping this outdated strategy and producing a credible successor to it with the needs and concerns of students and their representatives at heart?

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