Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely. Many things are different.

The Deputy constantly raises with me the need for a new student accommodation policy. The student accommodation policy in advance of this was wholly reliant on the private market. It was all about the private market building purpose-built student accommodation. This is turning that on its head. This is about recognising that the new policy under Housing for All is very much around funding universities and technological universities to build student accommodation and us, as a State, helping to bridge that viability gap.

We have already started projects, and I am pleased about that. We do not need to wait for formal policy to start projects. We have started projects and got them to tender in DCU and Maynooth University. We will have more to follow in Limerick and Galway. We are talking to UCD, Trinity College and DCU about more they can do. That was about the immediate, however. It was about taking projects that already had planning permission. We will now be working with every university in the country, including the technological universities, to get their plans in. We have surveyed 22,801 students who are renting or involved in student accommodation today to ask them their views on what they want to see. We are working on a standardised design template. We will have standardised design applications out to all universities and will be bringing back in projects. There is a significant focus on being less reliant on the private market. In addition, as recently as 17 days ago we extended the renters' tax credit, which makes a real difference to families in reducing the cost of student accommodation.

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