Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I will address some of the changes that were made last year. Without pre-empting the budget, I hope we can see a repeat of some of those initiatives this year. The €1,000 reduction in registration fees was certainly a boost in terms of improving accessibility to our universities for students, as were the changes made in the Finance Bill 2022 whereby students could avail of the rent tax credit if they were renting a room or digs and their parents could avail of it if they were renting college-owned accommodation or purpose-built student accommodation. Those were very positive measures and I hope we will see similar initiatives next week in the budget. I also acknowledge the increase in the income disregard highlighted by my colleague, Senator Cummins. It was very positive in increasing eligibility for SUSI.

There is no doubt that there are still significant challenges within the housing market for students. Student accommodation is hugely important in easing the burden on those students who can get into accommodation and reducing the burden on everyone else who is also looking for accommodation within the rental market. Students can become significantly stressed because when they get the notification of their placement, particularly if it is out of town, they have to go to visit the new place - they may be coming from the north west to Galway or elsewhere - to try to source accommodation. The supply of student accommodation is hugely important. I welcome the change in Government policy whereby the Minister and the Minister of State got the go-ahead from the Government for €61 million in capital funding to unlock the development of around 1,100 student accommodation beds. That is important. On foot of that, we are seeing students return to third level, with more beds this year than last year. That is a positive. There are an additional 938 college-owned student accommodation beds this year compared to the last academic year, and 674 of those, or three quarters, are in the University of Galway. That is remarkable. There are also over 2,000 additional privately funded beds due for completion this autumn. That is good news in terms of the Galway element, certainly for this year. Obviously, more is required not just in Galway but across the country. I certainly hope that is the case in this budget as we continue to progress towards improving accessibility to students across the country. As I said, the costs associated with accommodation can be a huge burden on students and their parents, particularly for families where there are siblings of a similar age or a year apart in age. It puts significant financial pressure on parents. Obviously, most students will endeavour to earn a few pounds themselves. I mentioned the changes in Government policy. If we can see some further changes in next week's budget, hopefully it will be of huge benefit to the students in Galway and elsewhere across the country.