Dáil debates

Thursday, 1 December 2022

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions

Student Accommodation

10:34 am

Photo of Rose Conway-WalshRose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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88. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide an update on the capital funding to unlock student accommodation projects and deliver approximately 3,000 student beds, currently at advanced stages of planning but unable to progress; if he will ensure that this accommodation is affordable; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59803/22]

Photo of Rose Conway-WalshRose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Minister provide an update on the specific amount of capital funding allocated to the higher education institutions, HEIs, to deliver the student accommodation, as was agreed by the Cabinet this week? I understand the Minister is unlocking 667 of the over 3,000 units that are shelved. Will he confirm the money made available is €32 million and that it will provide a grant of €48,000 per unit? Will he guarantee all those units will be affordable for ordinary working families?

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for the question. She is correct; the Government decision this week allocated an additional €32 million to HEIs for the provision of, as she said, 667 additional units. As the Deputy probably knows, they are in Maynooth, Galway and Limerick. I can come back on some of those details in a moment.

My Department has been engaged intensively in examining issues with student accommodation in the context both of the overall pressures within the general residential rental market, which are posing significant difficulties for students, and the escalation in building costs that has slowed the construction of purpose-built student accommodation by publicly-funded higher education institutions. Earlier this year I established a dedicated unit for student accommodation in my Department and received the endorsement of the Cabinet committee on housing to rapidly explore measures that might assist. A dual-track approach has been adopted through a concentration, in the short term, on the small number of institutions where planning permission is in place and plans, though stalled, are at an advanced stage. Meanwhile, wider planning is being initiated in order that a broader range of project options can be developed and considered next year. At the Government meeting this week I received endorsement on the proposed overall approach and specific approval for the three projects I referenced.

The approach adopted will see the State assist with the cost of building student accommodation so as to ensure increased availability and promote greater access, in particular for priority student groups identified in the National Access Plan, which was published in August. At the heart of the new policy is promotion of the delivery of student accommodation and provision of resources to ensure that those most in need are prioritised. The Government has agreed to a short-term activation plan to stimulate the supply of affordable accommodation. The immediate priority is to deliver on projects where planning permission already exists but where developments have not proceeded due to increasing construction costs. Support for three such proposals is being made available in respect of the University of Limerick, Maynooth University and the University of Galway and this proposal could deliver up to 700 additional beds. These are in addition to the 1,190 additional beds delivered this year or on track for delivery in 2023. In addition, we are continuing to engage with the other institutions that have full planning permission, as the Deputy referred to.

Photo of Rose Conway-WalshRose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome this approach because we have wanted to have it for so long, in the sense of there being an investment and recognising student accommodation is integral to access to third level. This is especially so for students from rural areas who cannot go to college without having accommodation. However, a decade of underinvestment in higher education has left us with this chronic lack of student accommodation. The plan to part-fund only 667 student beds does not go far enough because of the extent of the problem, particularly in the last 12 months, but also for years beforehand. Due to the chronic underinvestment in third level, we have an accumulation there to address. It does not reflect the scale and severity of the housing emergency. As the Minister said, there are more than 3,000 student beds sitting on the shelf due to the lack of Government support. Dublin City University, DCU, has had 990 additional beds with planning permission since 2019. That is a significant number of beds in the Dublin area and this needs to be the first step in what the Minister is doing. I want to see what other progress we can expect in that area. When will the accommodation be available for students, who are in a dire situation?

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Deputy's welcome. I think there was political consensus in the House the State should intervene in providing funding to build college-owned student accommodation. We might have differing views but there was a general consensus across the House that needed to happen and it is now happening.

If it does not sound too peculiar to say, I contend it is wrong to focus on the 667. It is great they are unlocked in Maynooth, Galway and Limerick and I thank those institutions. They will now proceed and go to construction in 2023. The bigger win this week for student accommodation is there is now a policy and a mechanism for the State to intervene. I assure the Deputy we are intensively engaging with DCU and University College Dublin, UCD, and they with us, to see if we can move their projects forward. There are five universities with active planning; three are over the line and two we are engaging. This week we have provided €1 million to the technological universities, which are close to the Deputy's heart, to allow them put their plans in place to benefit from a similar scheme in 2023. It is this new policy approach that is the most significant element.

Photo of Rose Conway-WalshRose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I agree on the policy approach. It should have been done many years ago. However, I want to ensure all those units are affordable. I do not want X number of units to be delivered, only for many of them to be beyond the reach of students. We will be in a worse situation if we end up like that. The devil will be in the detail of the contracts and agreements signed between the HEIs and the Government. It is about meeting the needs of students and families, who are really suffering with the cost-of-living and housing crises, not about the needs of people who are trying to make money on the back of hard-pressed students and families. I therefore want to know how many units are affordable.

On delivery, if it is going to construction in 2023, we are looking at 2024 and 2025, which is quite a bit into the future. That is why there must be an absolute urgency around this to get the student accommodation situation addressed. People are concerned about the students who will be starting next September, never mind the ones who are in a really precarious situation this year.

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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There are two elements here. Everybody benefits from extra supply. If we take Maynooth University, we know for every person who got a student accommodation bed on campus this year there were six applications. Therefore, even at current market rates there is demand for more. To be clear, what we are funding are not-for-profit units. We are funding publicly-funded institutions to deliver student accommodation. It is student accommodation that has to wash its face but not student accommodation seeking to make profit. Every cent the taxpayer invests will have to see a return in the form of affordability measures and that means below-market rents. I accept there is detail to be worked through. The Deputy is right on the construction. These are projects that will go to construction in 2023 but we must break the cycle. We cannot just look at this from September to September. We must take a new policy initiative that will begin to improve things. There are other student accommodation beds coming on stream. There are, for example, 674 units in Galway that are due to be completed in January that will be available for students in September. They are separate to this.