Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter repeatedly and for keeping in touch with me in respect of it. I am working actively to address the difficulties faced by students in accessing affordable student accommodation.

In recognition of the real challenge, including rising construction costs and the impact of same on the affordability of accommodation, I received Government approval on 29 November last to, for the first time ever, invest taxpayer funds in helping to build student accommodation. As the Deputy will know, because we have discussed the matter before, a number of projects were stalled which had active planning permission in five universities, UCD, DCU, Maynooth, Limerick and Galway. Trinity has got planning permission recently, so that is six. In November I got the go-ahead in relation to three, namely, Maynooth, Galway and Limerick, to provide part State funding to get those projects moving again. I have had extremely intensive direct engagements over the last couple of weeks with the presidents of UCD and DCU, separately, and their teams to try to move those projects on. I hope to be in a position to update Government on that shortly. Trinity will be engaging with them now that they have planning permission.

I know the Deputy’s heart and mind lies in the regions and how we can bring student accommodation into them. We also, on 29 November, made the decision to allocate seed funding, if I can call it that, of €1 million to the technological university sector to begin to develop its own plans. With the exception of Waterford - I see Deputy Ó Cathasaigh is here - there has not been a technological university or institution of technology that has built student accommodation. That is not a criticism. That is the way the rules were at the time. We need them to be able to bring in expertise, probably externally, to get a view as to what is possible.

I expect to shortly be in a position to outline how that €1 million will be used in a structured way. It is most likely to be used to provide a central external resource of expertise that could help all technological universities because there are probably synergies between them. I am happy to keep the Deputy updated on that.

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