Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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1. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress being made with regard to student accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23472/24]

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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First, I congratulate the Minister on his new position. I look forward to working with him and hope we can work together in a good, collaborative way going forward, doing our best to remedy some of the difficult issues that lie ahead for both students and staff and within the entire further and higher education sector.

My question relates to the student accommodation crisis.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Farrell for her kind wishes.

Last month, the Taoiseach and I announced the capital investment of €100 million from the national development plan windfall allocation for the delivery of student accommodation projects. This enables the activation of phase 1 of UCD's 493-bed project and the progression of the Maynooth 116-bed project to the construction stage and the DCU project of 405 beds through the tender stage. These projects are part of the short-term activation measures to stimulate supply of projects which had planning permission but had stalled.

The long-term policy approach was approved by my predecessor and the Government on 16 January 2024. This policy will inform the new student accommodation strategy which will be developed throughout 2024 and will include a series of stakeholder consultations. Interdepartmental and expert advisory groups are being established and will inform the responses. The policy approach includes measures for increasing supply of student accommodation, reducing cost of delivery through development of standardised design guidance and promoting efficient use of existing stock and vacancy while supporting balanced regional development. It will continue to have a focus on the provision of digs accommodation.

The technological university feasibility study has established an account of available student accommodation supply and has projected future supply and demand on a national and regional level. Phase 2 of the study is under way to identify project proposals to meet the future demand for student accommodation. A number of delivery mechanisms are being examined as part of this process.

It is my intention to develop a programmatic approach to facilitate future student accommodation proposals. This work will provide a framework of delivery models and funding options that will be regionally tailored. The HEA will provide its next phase report to my Department by the end of May 2024. This approach, coupled with the study on standardised design for student accommodation, which is due for completion by the end of quarter 4, will help to shape the future delivery of accommodation for our students.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister and I have had dealings in the past when I was the Opposition spokesperson on public expenditure and reform. I have always found the Minister to be very honest, frank and straight to the point, which I think is a very good quality and I hope it is a quality he will bring to this portfolio. If I am honest, in my view, that was lacking in the previous Minister.

The Minister referred to the UCD beds. There was a continuous re-announcement of these same beds. They were first announced in 2018, then paused in November 2022, re-announced in June 2023, re-announced in January 2024 and then again in April 2024. The Minister knows the huge pressure that students are under. He knows that at the coming of the academic year, students always face huge challenges. There is panic around housing, whether they will be able to find somewhere that is affordable, whether the landlord is going to increase the rent, or whether the only place they can afford is so far away that they are likely to spend every weekday on a bus or a train, commuting to college. Year after year, the student housing crisis has got worse under this Government. I hope the Minister can tell us he is going to bring clarity, frankness, openness and honesty in regard to student accommodation.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy very much for that ringing endorsement. I am delighted. What I would say is that a substantial amount of progress has been made in this area in recent years, and that needs to be recognised. This is an interdepartmental process and we must include my colleagues, the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, in the Department of Finance, and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, in order to give an overall picture of housing needs. I am acutely aware of this. I represent a constituency where there is no third level institution or university, although there is an agricultural college. Nonetheless, I am aware that for many of those I represent, commuting has become the new norm.

Today, before I came to the House, I asked the officials in the Department to check the digs that are currently available in the State today. There are 2,200 beds available today. Substantial changes were made to that element. I believe it is a fundamental part of the fix that we need going forward. It is certainly something that is in discussion with the Ministers, Deputy Michael McGrath and Deputy Darragh O'Brien, that I would like to see pushed out.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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I would be the first person to say I think something is going well but I genuinely believe that in terms of student accommodation, we are dramatically failing students. If we look at last year's budget, not a red cent was given to capital for student accommodation. If we look at the announcements by the Minister's predecessor, there were continuous re-announcements of the same beds. In my view, that is very unfair to students and parents who are trying to plan for the year ahead. Where are we at with regard to the technological universities? The TUs thought they would be able to borrow and we discovered only a number of months back from Eurostat that there was no further progress in regard to the TUs being able to do that. We also see that there was nothing to the student accommodation strategy that the Minister announced in January and the only new thing was that he said he was going to start using vacant properties. When I contacted the universities, none of them had vacant properties available for that. September is coming in only a few short weeks and we need to see affordable student accommodation coming on stream.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I remind the Deputy that in budget 2024, the rent tax credit was increased to €750.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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Not for capital.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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In budget 2023, it was also increased. The technological universities element the Deputy referred to is a new area for them. Being able to borrow is a new area for them. In addition, the creation of large-scale capital projects of this nature is also going to be a new area for them. Since I was appointed to this Department, having come from an infrastructure Department, I have been anxious to make sure that both the Higher Education Authority and my Department lend assistance. For many of the technological universities, as the Deputy knows, there will be capacity issues and constraints in areas where they have no experience because they were not allowed to have experience in that area up to now. In the coming months, as the technological universities give their assessments of their needs going forward, and with the HEA working with them, we will see progress in this area.

That is budgetary dependent, of course, and all of these are budgetary dependent. Between now and the Estimates, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, together with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, will drill down further into this.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Before we move on, I point out that Priority Questions are moving quicker than expected and we are now on Priority Question No. 3. Deputies should be forewarned.