Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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1260. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to fund affordable student accommodation and housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39752/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The National Student Accommodation Strategy is designed to ensure that there is an increased level of supply of purpose built student accommodation to reduce the demand for accommodation in the private rental sector by both domestic and international students attending our Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Several of the actions in this strategy centre around ensuring that HEIs have access to low-cost financing in order to support their building of student accommodation.

One of these actions involved the introduction of legislation to empower the Housing Finance Agency (HFA) to lend directly to HEIs for the development of students accommodation. This legislation was commenced in 2017, and so far three universities - TCD, UCC and UCD have had a total of €157 million in loans approved by the HFA, which will provide more than 1,400 new student bed spaces.

Last month I, along with my colleagues the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, announced that €75 million of financing had been successfully sourced for the Council of Europe Bank for the building of student accommodation in universities.

My Department and I will continue to work to ensure that our HEIs have access to the financing they need to build student accommodation.