Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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92. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which the accommodation needs of students seeking third or fourth level accommodation for the forthcoming academic year are likely to be met in full or otherwise; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26651/23]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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This question seeks to ascertain the extent to which we are preparing for this year's accommodation needs for students in third level and fourth level education and anticipating next year's requirements in that area. I am conscious of situations where some students are forced into unsuitable situations that require them to travel long distances at night and involve a lack of security and risk.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Durkan for this question.

Of course, the Deputy is correct. Obviously, we need to look at what can be done quickly but we also need to look at how we can break what I believe now is a cycle in terms of this annual situation that students and their families encounter in trying to identify student accommodation. That is why I have changed student accommodation policy in Ireland.

It was the situation that it was left entirely to the market to decide whether to build student accommodation or not, or entirely to the university to decide whether or not to use its own reserves. Last year, we changed that position. Both last year and this year - we will do more between now and the summer - we approved a number of student accommodation projects which will be college-owned and part-funded by the taxpayer. That had not happened previously. That has meant €59 million has now been approved by the Government from taxpayers' funds to get projects moving. It has meant over 1,071 new student accommodation beds are now being built - they will be college-owned - that were not being built previously. It means, in Deputy Durkan's constituency, that Maynooth University, for example, got the go-ahead. It received sanction from the Government for millions of euro in taxpayers' money so that we can now build 116 beds of student accommodation in Maynooth. That as one example. We have more that we are hoping to get over the line between now and the summer recess.

In addition, we are being honest about the rent-a-room scheme. I see this as an important part of the overall framework too. Different students will have different needs and different things will work for different people. Having more college-owned purpose-built student accommodation is good but so is ensuring that students can rent a room. What used to be called "digs" is something that has worked for many years in Ireland. It worked for many students last year and I believe it will work again. We have changed the rules as a Government to make it easier for people to rent out that spare room. They can do it now without losing their medical card, for example. Local authority tenants can do it where previously they could not. A person can do it without losing any social protection payments and without having to pay any tax on the income generated from renting that room up to €14,000 a year.

There is a huge amount of work that we need to do in this area. There is a huge amount of work that we are doing in this area. My message to every college in Ireland is that if they bring forward their plans they will meet a Government willing to part-fund those plans and get them moving.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for that information, in particular in relation to Maynooth. I can assure the Minister, as he himself will be aware, that there is still a shortfall, particularly in relation to on-campus accommodation which improves immeasurable security in so far as students are concerned. In many ways, it also reduces the cost. It also ensures that, as far as parents are concerned, they can be sure that their sons or daughters are in safe accommodation and that they do not have to walk or travel a couple of miles in darkness at night or in the early morning. I ask the Minister to continue in that area, having regard to this year's crop of students and the degree to which their accommodation needs are being met, and to pencil in the requirement for the rest of year and next year.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I certainly will do that. I agree that the student accommodation piece on campus is, of course, about student accommodation, but it is about mental health, well-being, development, the college experience and reassurance, perhaps for the parent, to know that the student has safe accommodation on campus near where he or she is going about his or her business and education.

It is my intention to make sure that all college projects for student accommodation that have planning permission have received sanction to move forward in some manner or means this year. That is what we are trying to do. We have three left, UCD, UCC and Trinity, that have potential. All the rest, DCU, Maynooth University, NUI Galway and University of Limerick, got the go ahead already from us over the past few months.

My next plan - we are doing this in tandem - is to get colleges that have no plans to get their act together in terms of getting their own planning permission, for example, the technological universities. I want to work with the technological universities to provide them with €1 million this year to develop their plans so that we will have a pipeline, that, frankly, we have not had previously, of taxpayer-funded college-owned student accommodation projects into the future.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for that vital information. In view of the expanding student population in some colleges which are growing immeasurably, I would ask that particular account be taken of their requirements as above and beyond all other requirements in the sector at present.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Student accommodation is key. What we need to do here is change the mindset. Colleges need to see the provision of student accommodation as a core part of their work. That is not the Government lecturing them. It is the Government saying we will work with them on it. If they come forward with the plans, we will try and get some of the funding. Let us work in partnership to get that student accommodation moving.

Of course, students all have different scenarios. Some students are part-time. Some students are holding down a full-time job and going to work. Some students can commute. Students who live where I live in Greystones might be commuting to UCD or Trinity and going home in the evening. For students living in rural County Longford, which was mentioned earlier, it may not be a possibility and they may have to move out. There are different scenarios. We need to have a range of options in place to recognise the different scenarios that different students encounter. A key part of that has to be college-owned purpose-built affordable student accommodation and that is now what we are doing.