Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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1. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the total number of higher education institution, HEI, student accommodation projects with planning permission; the steps he is taking to support these projects progressing to construction; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36672/22]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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The next time the Minister will be before this House will likely be in October. At that stage, many students will be in the midst of what has become an annual student accommodation crisis. Will the Minister outline the total number of student accommodation projects with planning permission, particularly the college-led projects, and the steps he is taking to support these projects progressing to construction?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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This is an important question on an important issue. We all know that we need to dramatically increase the supply of all types of housing and accommodation. This obviously has a direct impact on students. This is why, when the Government launched the Housing for All policy, which is led by my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, we set out a series of actions that will be delivered to address the housing crisis. This plan is backed by the largest housing budget in the history of our State to transform our housing system, with funding exceeding €20 billion.

Since I became Minister, I and my Department officials have been engaged intensively with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and his Department, the wider higher education sector and stakeholders on student accommodation issues in the context of overall housing policy. In a welcome development, my engagement with the sector has indicated that hundreds of additional bed spaces are to be made available by institutions for the start of the forthcoming academic year. We believe this figure to be in the region of 600. In addition, the major development of 674 extra bed spaces, which is under way at the National University of Ireland, NUI, Galway, is expected to be delivered later in the academic year. Therefore, while fully accepting the challenges that exist, and of which there is no doubt, we will be starting this college year with more college and student accommodation than we did last year, and with the additional 674 beds coming on board from NUI Galway later in the academic year.

We must do much more than that, however, and the Deputy’s question gets to the heart of the matter. Looking to the medium-term and on the basis of the most recent data available to my Department, more than 40 separate, purpose-built student accommodation projects have been granted planning permission. Between them, they are capable of delivering approximately 10,500 bed spaces. Three of these projects relate to plans by HEIs. These are: University College Dublin, UCD, which has planning permission for 1,254 bed spaces; Dublin City University, DCU, which has planning permission for 1,234 bed spaces; and Maynooth University, which has planning permission for 117 bed spaces. What we must do now, though, and I have discussed this issue with the Deputy previously, is to ensure that a model is in place that enables those developments that are ongoing to progress. I will have a chance to come back in again with another contribution shortly, but I will be updating the Cabinet committee on housing next week regarding this matter.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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As the Minister outlined, many universities have student accommodation projects at various stages of planning and development. Many of these are shovel-ready. In my engagement with the universities and colleges, I have found that they are unable to progress these projects due to the relationship between project cost and what that means in respect of the rent that the colleges must charge students. In order to access loans, colleges must charge enough rent to repay those funds in a set timeframe. This means that as the construction costs for these projects go up, so do the amounts that colleges have to charge in rent. I have no doubt but that the Minister is fully aware of that point. Projects are being shelved because colleges are, rightly, unwilling to advance those that will deliver accommodation at rent levels that are far too expensive for the majority of students. I am concerned that accommodation relating to those projects that have progressed will involve the payment of very high rents. We already have student accommodation in public universities that can cost up to €1,300 per month, which is scandalous considering the current economic climate.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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There are a couple of elements to this issue. There is what can be done right now, immediately, for September. The factual answer to that is that hundreds more college and student accommodation beds will be open this September compared with last September. Another 674 bed spaces are coming on board through NUI Galway as well later in the college year. We must also be conscious of the rent-a-room scheme that is available. Last year, there was a bit of a perfect storm, if I may use that phrase, and understandably so with the prevalence of Covid-19 being so high. Many people who might previously have been happy to rent a room to a student, or anybody else, understandably did not want to take other people into their homes. There is obviously a situation where it is possible to rent out a room in one’s home and to earn an income of up to €14,000 tax-free. Several of the universities and colleges are working to promote that scheme in their localities. Technological University, TU, Dublin has actually created a register for people to express an interest in renting rooms. What we need to do, and what I am determined to do, is to come up with a model that unblocks the market failure in respect of larger-scale projects. That will require a public subvention, but in return for that subvention it will also be necessary to have an agreement and an understanding regarding an affordable rent.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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Absolutely, that aspect has emerged in the conversations I have had with the representatives of the colleges and universities well. There will have to be conditions in respect of the affordability of accommodation. That can be done. Affordable accommodation is the biggest barrier to entering third level education today, and this is especially true for students from rural areas. A report undertaken by researchers at NUI Galway found that the average cost for the cheapest room in Irish university accommodation is considerably higher than in Britain and Europe or even up the road in Queen’s University Belfast or Ulster University. The Government estimated in its 2017 student accommodation strategy that for every four students housed in student accommodation or digs would free up an additional housing unit in the private sector. Investment in student accommodation is vital for fair access to education, but it also has the potential to take the pressure off the private market. As the Minister said, we therefore need to be building accommodation of all kinds. I take from what the Minister has said that he is going to commit to capital funding for the colleges and universities to enable them to provide student accommodation.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I could come in here and bamboozle us with figures, but I do think that would be terribly useful. Under the official student accommodation strategy, we are, from what I can see, either on or ahead of target. Approximately 25,770 bed spaces were either completed, under construction or had planning permission granted at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021. That kind of misses the point though, which is that we need a new model. I agree with the Deputy that we need a model that does ease concerns with affordability. We also need a model that is concerned with college-owned accommodation. We cannot be fully reliant on the private market in this area. I genuinely believe that. I want to see a model developed that has a required public subvention element to it. In return for that subvention, however, I want assurances in respect of the timescales for delivery and affordable rents. I cannot announce that model today. I am engaging with Government colleagues on this issue and I am due to update the Cabinet committee on housing shortly on this matter.

A final point I wish to make on this issue that I think will be useful, particularly since the Deputy is from the regions, is that we now have clarity regarding the borrowing framework for the TUs. There is much potential in that sector and I have made that clear to those universities. I will be writing to them all this week to make that clear to them. Those TUs can now access borrowing in the same way as traditional universities to enable them to build student accommodation.