John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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196. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills following the publication of the action plan for housing and homelessness four months ago, the status of the progress made to date on action 4.7 to prepare and publish a national student accommodation strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35093/16]

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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197. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills following the publication of the action plan for housing and homelessness four months ago, the status of the progress made to date on action 4.8; if he will outline the findings of the initial assessment with regard to bringing on stream proposals capable of delivering an additional 7,000 student accommodation places by end of 2019; if he will identify the locations and number of units to be provided in each location; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35094/16]

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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198. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills following the publication of the action plan for housing and homelessness four months ago, the status of the progress made to date on action 4.9 to establish dedicated delivery structures, such as AHBs in the higher education institutions sector to access Housing Finance Agency funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35095/16]

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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199. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills following the publication of the action plan for housing and homelessness four months ago, the status of the progress made to date on action 4.11 to establish funding mechanisms for institutes of technology to support the development of their student accommodation capacity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35097/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 196 to 199, inclusive, together.

Alleviating the housing crisis is a cross-Government priority and the available analysis indicates that the lack of suitable rental accommodation for students is driving up rents in the private rental sector, particularly in areas where demand for rental property is high. This is contributing to what we know is already a considerable strain on some students and their families to participate in higher education with knock-on effects on completion rates. The reality is that dealing comprehensively with this issue will only take place as part of a more general programme to address the major housing and homelessness issue.

Accordingly, my colleague Mr. Simon Coveney T.D., Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, on 19 July 2016 published “”, following Government approval of this comprehensive and ambitious Plan. The full plan can be accessed at:.

My Department worked closely with the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government in developing this Plan, with a specific focus on student accommodation, and I very much welcome the commitments contained in the plan and I look forward to working with colleagues on a cross-Departmental basis to ensure that the commitments contained in the Plan are implemented as soon as practicable.

The current position in respect of the specific measures relating to student accommodation as detailed in Rebuilding Irelandis as follows:

(i) The Department of Education and Skills in conjunction with a number of other key stakeholders will prepare and publish a national student accommodation strategy, which will set out a broad framework for delivery of an enhanced level of accommodation and which will inform local authority housing strategies and the land management process in general, in order to provide suitably located and affordable sites. This will be prepared with a view to developing a national policy on specific needs and mechanisms for the development of appropriate on-campus and off-campus student accommodation.

Action: Rebuilding Irelanddetails that this plan will be in place by Q2 2017 and my Department is working on the development of this plan with a view to meeting the timescale envisaged in Rebuilding Ireland.

(ii) My Department will work with stakeholders to prioritise and progress viable projects to provide additional student accommodation in key urban areas. This will be done with a view to bringing on stream proposals capable of delivering an additional 7,000 student accommodation places by end 2019, on or off campus, in addition to projects already committed to.

Action: Rebuilding Irelanddetails that the initial assessment will be completed during Q4 2016 and officials from my Department are working closely with officials from the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government with a view to meeting the timescale envisaged in Rebuilding Ireland.

(iii) Dedicated delivery structures, such as Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) will be established in the Higher Education Institutions (HEI) sector to access Housing Finance Agency (HFA) funding, and complete any required policy, regulatory or legislative changes necessary. This will be done with a view to providing additional funding mechanisms for the HEI sector, in conjunction with the HFA.

(iv) The Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government will enable student accommodation projects for 100 units or more to go straight to An Bord Pleanála, as well as maximise the opportunities for joint venture projects on local authority sites to proceed through the Part 8 process and prepare guidance on planning policies around student accommodation developments. This will be done to enhance certainty and reduce delivery timescales and costs associated with bringing student accommodation proposals forward.

Action: To facilitate early action on new processes and structures which are key to the delivery of housing and the regulation of the housing sector, the Government approved the publication of the General Scheme of a Planning and Development (Housing and Residential Tenancies) Bill in September and is now prioritising its drafting and full publication to enable a number of legislative actions and reforms highlighted across the five pillars of the Action Plan. This includes facilitating (for a limited time-period) planning applications for large-scale housing developments and student accommodation developments, being made directly to An Bord Pleanála and facilitating Higher Education Institutes to borrow monies from the Housing Finance Agency for the purposes of financing student accommodation provision. Officials from my Department have been linking in directly with officials in the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government and with representatives of the Higher Education Institutions around the modalities and practicalities for implementing these measures once the proposed legislation has been implemented.

(v) The Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government will help to fund a Student Housing Officer to work with the Union of Students in Ireland, local authorities, AHBs and housing providers, to identify and expand short-term capacity enhancing measures in the student accommodation sector. This will be done with a view to assisting students in finding appropriate accommodation.

Action: Funding for a Student Housing Officer to work with the Union of Students in Ireland has been agreed for 2016 with a commitment to examine future funding needs going forward. This builds on the funding of €30,000 which was provided to Union of Students in Ireland (USI) by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) to fund their 2016 #HomesForStudy campaign.

(vi) Funding mechanisms will be established for Institutes of Technology to support the development of their student accommodation capacity. This is to facilitate the Institute of Technology sector in developing their potential for on-campus student accommodation through addressing current borrowing capacity and funding constraints.

Action: I believe that a borrowing framework for the IOT sector would deliver significant benefits. My officials are in discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to examine ways Institutes of Technology can be facilitated in developing on-campus student accommodation through addressing borrowing capacity and funding constraints.

(vii) The Department of Housing Planning Community and Local Government in conjunction with the Department of Education and Skills will carry out an assessment of scope for provision of additional student accommodation on local authority or other publicly-owned lands with a view to maximising the potential for student accommodation provision on suitable sites as part of mixed developments.

Action: Work is ongoing in the Department of Housing, Planning Community and Local Government on developing a comprehensive database of publicly owned lands in key developable areas with a view to identifying land suitable for housing development. The database of publicly owned lands will also inform the scope for provision of additional student accommodation.

In addition to these developments, I should point out that a number of our Higher Education Institutions have Student Accommodation projects ongoing, or in the pipeline, with a number of additional on-campus Student Accommodation bed-spaces coming online from September 2016. Maynooth University have 296 new on-campus bed spaces, and UCD have 350 new on-campus bed spaces, which came on stream for the commencement of the 2016/17 academic year. Six other Higher Education Institutions are currently engaged in, or going through the planning phases for student accommodation projects, namely National University of Ireland Galway, Trinity College Dublin, University of Limerick, Dublin City University, University College Cork and Dublin Institute of Technology.

The Actions in the Plan in relation to Student Accommodation build on the report, Student Accommodation: Demand & Supply, which was published last year by the Minister for Education and Skills. The full report can be accessed at:

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The previous Minister for Education and Skills introduced two immediate actions following the publication of this report. Firstly, and as already pointed out, funding was provided by the HEA to the Union of Students' (USI) in Ireland to progress short-term solutions for students in need of accommodation. This funding allowed USI to develop their homes.usi.ie website, to communicate more effectively to students and homeowners, and to carry out research into this important issue.

Secondly, this led to the establishment of an inter-departmental steering group to examine the recommendations contained in the HEA Report and to provide a coordinating mechanism to ensure that the higher education institutions have access to information on new potential funding and delivery models.