Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the opportunity to raise this issue this evening. I raise it not just in the context of being a Deputy whose constituency contains the Belfield campus but also because it is of national structural and infrastructural importance. Of course, University College Dublin, UCD, is the largest third level institution in the State with a student population of over 25,000. While the news that came out earlier in the week that the college authorities have decided they are no longer able to push ahead with 1,200 additional on-campus accommodation spots is extremely disappointing, sadly it is not greatly surprising given that the reason cited for the cancellation or postponement of the project is rising material and labour costs and the difficulty in accessing both those things.

While this is a disappointment and a challenge, I feel there is an opportunity here because the president of the university has indicated it is seeking Government support to get this project back up and running. In other fields where major national infrastructure projects are threatened due to rising costs or lack of labour, the Minister of Public Expenditure and Reform has said the State will intervene and will work with developers and contractors to address those needs. That is a fair assessment and this case comes under that situation.

It is regrettable that the university has stated it needs to ensure that the rents to be charged on campus will cover the costs. We want rents on campus to be charged in a fair and equitable manner, reflecting that the people living in this accommodation are full-time students. These are younger people who may have a part-time job but do not have the means to pay excessive market-based rates. I know those are not necessarily words people are used to hearing coming from my mouth but we are talking about third level education, involving the training and education of the future engineers and architects who will build the next phase of housing, the doctors and nurses who will staff our health service and even possibly the next generation of Deputies. Who knows what will come out of UCD in the coming years? They need to be able to be educated in a manner where their accommodation needs are not distracting excessively from their studies, which is something that is happening throughout the country at the moment. It has given rise to protests by student unions up and down the country within institutions and on a national level.

We have another exciting opportunity that needs to be taken forward. This was a plan for just 1,200 accommodation units. Given the footprint of the UCD Belfield campus, we all know it has the opportunity to construct large levels of student accommodation. The space is there, the services are there and the transport infrastructure surrounding it is there. There is absolutely no reason we cannot inform UCD that the assistance will be provided on two conditions: that the Government can have a direct say on the rents being charged to students; and that UCD ups its level of ambition to a realistic level that will service not just the needs of UCD but also the needs of the entire State. It can alleviate a great deal of the pressure on the general rental market in Dublin, particularly in the south Dublin area that surrounds the campus.

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