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

That is my understanding. That was a key ask, particularly to unblock the student accommodation issue. Some of the institutions have land but the schemes did not add up in terms of viability, as I said. That has slowed down much of the student accommodation in the past two to three years. The State has to get involved to bridge that viability gap. The Minister, Deputy Harris, is working on that. He established a dedicated unit which visited all the universities, both TUs and the more traditional universities, and it hopes to come forward with some interim solutions and then a more general scheme that supports State intervention to get more units built.

Some 670 new beds were provided this year and some will be delivered by the University of Galway later this year. This shows it can be done but it is clear the State has to get involved. The rent-a-room scheme has been effective. This is where people can earn up to €14,000 in rental income before having to pay tax. A lot of work went into marketing that scheme for this year’s student intake. It yielded some good results and the institutions promoted it strongly. We are looking at other ways to make that option more attractive. We have a lot of housing stock that is not optimally occupied. That is a good scheme as it incentivises people who might be in a three- or four-bedroom house on their own and can bring somebody in. It is a good use of existing housing stock and a quick way of getting extra stock in use.

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