Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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57. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to address the student accommodation crisis. [28431/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Alleviating the housing crisis is a cross-Government priority.  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 “”.  The full plan can be accessed at: .

My Department contributed significantly to the development of this Plan and the current position in respect of the specific measures relating to student accommodation as detailed in Rebuilding Ireland is as follows:

1. Rebuilding Ireland details that a national student accommodation strategy will be in place by Q2 2017 and my Department is working on the development of this strategy with a view to meeting this timescale. 

2. Rebuilding Ireland details that an initial assessment will be completed during Q4 2016 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.  Officials from my Department are working closely with officials from the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government with a view to meeting this timescale. 

3. & 4. 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. 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. 

5. 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 USI by the HEA to fund their 2016 #HomesForStudy campaign.

6. I believe that a borrowing framework for the IOT sector would deliver significant benefits and 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.

7. 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. This database will also inform the scope for provision of additional student accommodation.

In addition, I should point out that a number of our Higher Education Institutions have Student Accommodation projects ongoing, or in the pipeline.  Maynooth University have 296 new on-campus bed spaces, and UCD have 350 new on-campus bed spaces, which came on stream in September 2016.  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 Rebuilding Ireland 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.