Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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9. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the discussions that he has had with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in relation to the student accommodation crisis that will hit in early September 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36668/22]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Last year, there was an absolutely dire student accommodation crisis, to the point were many students were paying up to €400 a week for hotel accommodation. Some could not even get that. What is going to be different this year? Student union leaders believe that we are going to face the same student accommodation crisis this year, as last year. What has the Minister done, and what is he going to do to prevent that from happening?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Government's Housing for All Plan contains a detailed and comprehensive series of actions to substantially increase supply of all types of housing and accommodation, including student accommodation. I think it is sometimes hard to decouple the issues that students face in relation to accommodation from the boarder housing issues. That is why I have referenced Housing for All. The plan is backed by the largest housing budget in the history of the State. There is a €20 billion budget behind it. I have been engaging extensively with my Department on the issue, with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and his Department, as well as with the wider higher education sector, student representative groups and other stakeholders. In recent weeks I chaired a meeting of all higher education institutions and the Union of Students of Ireland, USI, to further pursue the issue. I have corresponded with all chairs and presidents of the new technological universities at least twice this year regarding the current issues with accommodation and how we can try to resolve them.

As I said to Deputy Conway-Walsh earlier, we are approaching the new academic year with two different realities. First, we are approaching the year with around 600 additional student accommodation beds. Second, I hope we are approaching the year in which we can begin to get the rent-a-room scheme back up and running, which fell off a cliff during the height of the Covid pandemic. They are the two most immediate avenues that we can pursue. In addition to the 600 beds I mentioned earlier, another 674 beds are due to become available during the academic year in NUI Galway. The bigger project that I am genuinely working intensively on is to try to put a new model in place to deliver student accommodation. I am saying openly and bluntly that I think it will require public and State subvention to bridge what seems to be the market failure challenge that universities and colleges are experiencing at the moment. There will have to be an affordability conversation in return for any subvention made by the State. However, there are many planning permissions in the pipeline for college-owned student accommodation that could be built if we can unleash the new model. I am engaging with the Cabinet subcommittee on housing on the matter next week.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The cheapest student accommodation at UCD is more than €8,000 for the college term. The new student accommodation that is going to be provided at UCD costs €14,000 a year. That is just insanity. It is not acceptable. To be honest, the Government should intervene immediately to ensure that students and their families are not being screwed with that level of rent. It is not that I am a fan of HAP but, as I said, a temporary stop-gap must be introduced. People should not be paying that level of rent. I would be in favour of nationalising all the privately- and investor-built student accommodation. The developers are getting tax breaks and they are charging €1,000 a month in rent, which most students cannot afford. Then there is the bigger issue of the need for major investment in providing student accommodation that is affordable on campus or near campus.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I think there are four actions we need to take. The first is that we need to take a flexible local approach. We have said several times that we want to hear from any higher education institution in any part of the country that has a local solution. If there is something that can be done on campus or near campus, or if the institution has a building that can be converted into student accommodation, we want to hear about it, and we will provide assistance in making that happen. There is an example of this approach being taken in Limerick, the constituency of the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, where the technological university there worked with the local authority to deliver a local solution. The second action we need to take, which I have discussed with students, is to get the rent-a-room scheme up and running again. If people have a spare room, they can earn up to €14,000 tax-free while renting out a room. That is a scheme that has traditionally worked well. I accept that USI wants assurances around the protection for students in what it refers to as digs. That is a valid issue. The third element is the borrowing framework. We have provided legal clarity that the new technological universities, which were previously institutes of technology, of which there is one in the Deputy's constituency, can borrow to build for the first time. The fourth is the new model that I am working on, which I believe will require an intervention from the State to unleash the potential to build many thousands of on-campus college-owned student accommodation units.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The problem is that rather than the Government making a decision that we have to have the necessary student accommodation to avoid a student accommodation crisis and to make it affordable, the onus is being put on the colleges to provide it. The result is that we are getting accommodation such as that being offered at UCD, which costs €14,000 a year. I made a general suggestion to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, but he did not take it up. The Seamark Building, a multistorey building located opposite the Merrion Gates, has been sitting empty for ten years. I suggest that the Government buys the building and refurbishes it for student accommodation. Nothing the Minister said really suggests to me that we are not going to face major problems again this year. Does the Minister agree with me that, although HAP is not an ideal scheme by any means compared to the direct provision of student accommodation or any form of accommodation, we should at least be bringing the rents down to affordable levels for student by providing subsidies such as HAP?

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I think this question is the most important of the oral parliamentary questions today. On top of everything Deputy Boyd Barrett said, my worry is that there are many accommodation centres, particularly in the mid-west, that also have Ukrainian refugees staying in them now. The capacity that they would have had in the previous academic year is now virtually gone. I am glad to hear the Minister will entertain the idea of institutions finding on-campus solutions. However, I do not think enough is being done in that regard. I am thinking of the University of Limerick, in particular, which is close to me. I am not suggesting for a moment that people should be sleeping on camp beds in lecture halls. That is not what we are talking about. However, the university has the highest number of faculty buildings available in the mid-west on its campus. Surely, there are buildings that could be partitioned, or buildings in respect of which a change of use application could be submitted to the local authority, with the buildings subsequently being fitted out in order to provide student accommodation.

The Minister needs to write to all third-level presidents and what can be done in an eight-week planning window.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I want to talk about Carlow-Kilkenny. As the Minister knows, we are all delighted Carlow is a university town and county but again there are going to be issues with accommodation. Carlow College, St. Patrick's, has 40 units of its own that I am aware he is looking at integrating into the TU for the south east. The local authorities have a role to play in their development plan also to ensure we have enough housing and apartments and that people are not losing out because we do not have the spaces. I ask that all bodies work together to ensure there is enough accommodation, especially in new university towns like Carlow.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I wish to pick up on the point about the demand from Ukrainian students. I commend the accommodation providers supplying that accommodation and absolutely condemn the others who are using the opportunity to price-gouge and put up prices hugely. I am talking about around the country but Athlone especially. A clear message needs to go out from here that price-gouging in these circumstances will not be tolerated and that it is condemned across the House.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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The Minister is in a position where he has one minute to reply.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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It is everyone.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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They are supplemental questions, not grouped questions.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Perfect. I will give it my best shot. I agree with Deputy Conway-Walsh that all of us in the House should condemn anybody who attempts to price-gouge in the middle of a horrific illegal invasion and massive humanitarian crisis. I will talk to her in more detail about that.

Deputy Murnane O'Connor is right that as we develop the technological universities, and there is one in the south east in Carlow-Kilkenny, accommodation needs to come with that. That is why I am delighted we have clarity now on the borrowing framework that means the South East Technological University can apply to build student accommodation in a way it could not in the past. I am also conscious of Carlow College and the real possibility there is there for student accommodation on the site. I hope we make progress on that.

I agree with Deputy Cathal Crowe. I wrote to every university president on this in February. I wrote to them again, I think, in June. I chaired a meeting with them on 16 June. We have made it extremely clear here that we will do whatever it takes and Members need to keep coming forward with ideas and local solutions. I have had good conversations with UL in recent weeks.

Deputy Boyd Barrett's HAP idea certainly merits consideration and I am not going to rule it out. It is not a policy intervention within my direct Department but let me reflect on it and talk to relevant Ministers about that.