James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

The strategy to which the Deputy refers is the National Student Accommodation Strategy 2017-2024, which was the first national strategy of its kind. The aims of that strategy were to meet rising student housing demand, ease pressure on the private rental market and, ultimately, increase the supply of purpose-built student accommodation, PBSA. Two key goals were set out, the first of which was to deliver 7,000 new PBSA beds by 2019. That goal was met. In fact, it was exceeded, with over 8,000 beds completed by the end of that year, or 1,000 beds ahead of the target. The second target was to add an additional 21,000 new PBSA beds to the existing stock of 33,500 by 2024. That target was 91% delivered. Roughly 49,000 beds were delivered out of a goal of approximately 54,000. The reasons for falling 9% short of the target include factors like Brexit, Covid, the Ukraine war, inflation, global supply chains and the Suez crisis. I do not think any of us would disagree that the years 2021 to 2023 were challenging for the entire economy but particularly for construction and supply chains. I looked into this issue myself and in the context of everything that happened in those years, achieving 91% of the target is not bad.

Looking forward, I am actively pursuing a new student accommodation strategy, which I hope to publish later this year, that will look at a number of items related to student accommodation. The Deputy asked why it was not mentioned in the budget speeches. I was surprised to hear that because in my own budget 2026 speech, I talked about additional moneys for maintenance grants for non-adjacent students, with a particular focus on those students who are travelling or paying rent. I mentioned that very specifically. The Minister for public expenditure, Deputy Chambers, also specifically referenced student accommodation in his speech on budget day. I do not quite understand why the Deputy made that suggestion because I checked both speeches and we both spoke to the issue.

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