Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

96. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to ensure students have access to affordable accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59753/22]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is a stark and unacceptable fact that even if a student is in receipt of the maximum SUSI grant of €6,115, he or she will not be able to afford student accommodation at UCD, where even the cheapest and supposedly most affordable rates range from €6,900 a year up to €10,745. What will the Minister do to ensure there is affordable accommodation at publicly funded colleges and universities, and more generally, for the student population?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It has been a significant week in terms of changing the Government's policy on student accommodation. This week, I went to Government with a proposal that, for the first time, the State will use taxpayers' money to help to build publicly owned college accommodation. I have stated in the House previously that we have been too reliant on the private market in this regard. We are now changing that policy. Three projects, at Maynooth, Galway and Limerick universities, have now been approved as part of that. Five universities have active planing permission and those are three of them. UCD and DCU are the other two and we are engaging to try to get them over the line as well. We have also provided €1 million to technological universities to do a similar exercise to bring in the expertise and capabilities to come up with their own plans. The process and policy have changed this week, however. We are open for business to receive applications from publicly funded institutions where we will bridge that viability gap. The phrase "viability gap" is jargon to an extent but, in effect, it is the difference we need to make up to ensure the accommodation can be built and affordable. I have stated clearly this week, and the Government has agreed, that the accommodation that needs to be provided in return for any investment we make must be made available below the market rate. It must be available at €6,000 or less, which is in line with or slightly below the maximum SUSI grant. That is the new policy we now have in place. The result is that almost 700 units that were stalled for several years and would not otherwise have been built will be able to commence and go ahead in 2023. The bigger picture and the bigger win for the sector and students is we now have a new approach to student accommodation. I know it cannot come fast enough, but it will make a real difference in making sure we have more college-owned accommodation. My challenge to every university and college is for them to send in their plans and get ready because the excuse or truth that the Government is not providing funding for student accommodation is no longer true.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Government funding for student accommodation is welcome but the devil is in the detail. Will it be genuinely affordable? How much of this new accommodation will there be? It is only the accommodation built with the money the State will put in that will be supposedly affordable. The rest will be unaffordable. Is the Minister aware, for example, that, every year, UCD imposes the maximum legally allowed increase of 2%? Every year, it increases the rent on students despite the fact there is an affordability crisis. Does he know the new accommodation built at UCD will be €1,300? It is outrageous. That is the same as market rates. We cannot have a situation where national universities and publicly funded universities are charging these extortionate rates. According to the Minister, there will be a little bit of affordable, but we are not even clear on the detail. Will it genuinely be affordable? Even if the maximum rent is €6,000, as the Minister stated, that would eat up almost all of a student's grant. There is not a single piece of accommodation at UCD currently, for example, that would be fully covered by the maximum SUSI grant.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There are two parts to this, as the Deputy may have heard me say earlier. There is a supply issue. To take Maynooth University as an example, based on the figures I have in my head, for every one student who got a student accommodation bed on campus, there were six others who sought one. There was a demand this year for student accommodation, at current rates, that could not be met. We have to ramp up supply. I take the point on affordability, however. I have no interest in student accommodation being opened with great fanfare but not being affordable for the bulk of students. I am trying to find a mechanism that allows the State to give money to universities that is in compliance with state aid rules and all those kinds of things with which we need to comply and enables accommodation to be provided at affordable rates. The debate in respect of what is affordable is a somewhat subjective one.

The Deputy has raised with me previously in the House that there are different ways the State can help people meet the cost of their rent if the unit is built. However, if the unit is not built, we are having an academic conversation, if he will pardon the pun. The key thing is to build the accommodation and make sure we can use many tools, including student grants and other suggestions the Deputy has made, to try to help students meet the cost of rent.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

On that point, we must do the catch-up and provide purpose-built, affordable, student accommodation on university lands. By the way, the idea of state aid rules kicking in is slightly worrying when it comes to public universities. These are public universities and public goods, but I will leave that aside. The vast majority of students are still prey to what is going on in the wider private rental market. Many of them are licensees living in digs and so on. One of the things UCD students' union again said this morning is we need some minimum protections for people in licensee arrangements who are facing short notice evictions and all sorts of things, and who have no rights and protections whatsoever. The students' union representatives also asked to meet not just the Minister but the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, given that many students are affected by that wider rental accommodation and housing crisis, to address the issues students are facing.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I have had a number of engagements with UCD students' union. I have no issue meeting with that body. I will certainly ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to meet with those students also. I am sure he will have no issue doing so either.

The reference to state aid rules related to the fact that private developers could say they can build accommodation too. I am trying to change the model. I genuinely believe we need to have more publicly funded institutions owning their own accommodation. I really believe that. To be quite honest, during the Covid pandemic, we saw the benefit of having people in college-owned student accommodation when they got refunds quicker, in some cases, than those who were not. We need to build more college-owned student accommodation. In a housing emergency, it is not acceptable that we have publicly owned land with planning permissions that have not been activated. We have activated three of them this week. Five were not activated but we activated three of them. Two of them are large, UCD and Dublin City University. They are genuinely engaging very constructively, for which I thank them, and we are trying to find a way forward.

We have a new policy framework. We can rightly debate the details of it but the approach we are now taking to student accommodation is different and better. It is overdue but it will make a real difference.