Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

While I agree with the Deputy about affordability, you come at affordability from a range of ways. Affordability is about making sure a family or student can afford to pay the price of college and of renting for college. Reducing fees, increasing grants, extending the renter's tax credit and specifically putting €440,000 into the student assistance fund for students having difficulty with the cost of accommodation means we have help in the here and now and from the get-go. I agree fully with the Deputy about standardisation. I have spoken to student unions and they tell me they are being asked to pay for accommodation at a spec, for want of a better word, they never sought. We need to get to standardised design. We need student accommodation as it is being built in Sligo and Athlone, County Westmeath, and the technological universities in Waterford, Carlow and other places. We need a standard approach across the country. I am concluding a piece of work with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on standardised design that will be due in quarter 1 of 2024. I think that will make a real difference in terms of the affordability and speed of rolling out new projects.

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