Noel O'Donovan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the Chamber and wish him well in his endeavours in the years ahead. I raise the issue of student accommodation and the shortages thereof. It has been mentioned a few times by my colleagues here. There is no denying we have major issues when it comes to a lack of housing, which is also creating significant issues with homelessness, but the lack of housing is also having a serious contagion effect for students. The lack of student accommodation is taking away the opportunity of studying for students as well as placing a heavy financial burden on the students and their families, impacting their student life experience and mental health.

I think back to my own days of college life in UCC and how fortunate I was to live in a house with many people who I still call friends. We were still teenagers setting off on our college journey, but by living together, cooking, socialising and dealing with the many social issues we came across in our lives, we grew as individuals and prepared ourselves for life ahead. Accommodation is much more than just a roof. Nowadays, there are many issues students face when they are struggling with their accommodation. One issue among many is the cost of renting and the financial stress that falls on students due to unaffordable living costs.

I looked at some statistics in preparation for the debate today and, according to dublin.ie, the average cost of accommodation in the city centre at the moment for a one bedroom apartment is €1,700. In Cork city, the rent for students can go up as high as €7,000 or more for shared accommodation in one academic year. These costs are really stopping people from entering college. For a lot of students, it is simply not possible for them to afford the high costs of student rent. Many students try to balance work and study to afford the rent, and the constant pressure of being in financial trouble can heavily impact the quality of a student's life and mental health.

There are also students who have to commute to college daily because they can neither afford nor find housing. I spoke to a college student recently in my own area of Castletownbere who for two years had to travel to UCC. Not to mind the cost of fuel for travelling to UCC, that student had to stay in their car a number of nights during their college years. That is simply not acceptable. As some Senators have mentioned here today, a pressing matter facing so many is family income being too large to meet the threshold. We need to fix that system. Students are losing valuable time commuting to and from college when the distances are so long. They are forced to reduce the hours they can dedicate to their studies and assignments because they have to spend so long travelling.

I welcome the commitments in the programme for Government to investing in affordable student accommodation. We need the required legislative changes to allow technological universities to borrow more money to build and purchase student accommodation. Mention has been made of, and we need to see the publication of, the new strategic plan for student accommodation and finally commit to providing the number of student beds needed to meet the shortfall.