Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have taken significant measures to help students in the budget, not least the €1,000 reduction in fees this year and a further €500 reduction in the next academic year. There is also the renter's credit that parents who pay rent for students will be in a position to avail of. Those are significant measures. There is also the additional payment under the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grant, which is very helpful in the current inflationary cycle we find ourselves in.

As for student accommodation, it is symptomatic of the wider housing issue in that it is about viability. Many colleges and developers, as they get together with land, are saying it is not viable to build apartments and rent them to students at affordable rates, so the State is being asked to enter that scene also.

See this speech in context