Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for joining us. I compliment the Minister, Deputy Harris, who is continually expanding university places and pathways to higher education. Coming from a further education background myself, he is the first Minister to recognise seriously the sector’s potential and the alternative pathways it provides many people into third level.

We are here to discuss the major crisis in student accommodation. A student march on the crisis took place today. It was organised by the Union of Students in Ireland, USI. Our students are paying some of the highest fees in Europe, but they are also being crippled by the cost of accommodation in our cities. It is impossible for students. Where housing is concerned, we need an Ireland that works for all, including for those in education.

Students have to work full time and balance multiple jobs on top of lectures, practical classes and placements to afford the rents in some of our major towns and cities. The greatest barrier to education is not entry requirements but the affordability crisis. It is preventing students from taking up their higher education opportunities, regardless of how many pathways the Minister opens. We see people who are couch surfing, commuting, dealing with overnight evictions from digs, forgoing meals and dropping out. These are all-too-common experiences in universities, further education bodies and colleges throughout the country.

We have relied on the private sector. In this way, we have opened up a two-tiered education and accommodation system where the privileged become students and the rest are never given a chance. My area of Dublin 8 saw a large amount of student accommodation built between 2017 and 2020, but it was not accommodation for people attending Griffith College or what has since become Technological University Dublin, TU Dublin. Rather, it was specifically targeted at high-end international students, with all the bells and whistles that accompany that. It was unaffordable for any student attending those bodies of further education.

We need a new path to education - a public, affordable and accessible accommodation path for all. We do this by ensuring the State is involved in directly building cost-rental student accommodation and universities are not forced to use student accommodation to plug their gaps in funding. We need to increase direct State financing of higher education and tackle the cost-of-living crisis.