Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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359. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will work with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to bring forward a new strategy for student accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46505/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I am committed to working collaboratively with my colleague the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (FHERIS) to improve student accommodation provision through a dedicated working group set up for that purpose.

This will build on the excellent and productive relationship that has been build up between the two Departments over the past number of years. The Department of Housing played a key part in helping to develop the National Student Accommodation Strategy in 2017 the production of which was an action under Rebuilding Ireland. The strategy was published by the then Department of Education and Science and includes eight key targets and 27 actions to support the delivery of an increased level of supply of Student Accommodation.

The two Departments also worked in close co-operation in passing the Residential Tenancies Act 2018. That Act contained provisions designed to improve protections and affordability measures for students residing in student-specific accommodation.

I believe that Housing for All : A New Housing Plan for Ireland will transform every aspect of our housing including the area of student accommodation. The Plan is backed by historic levels of investment with in excess of €20bn through the Exchequer, the Land Development Agency (LDA) and the Housing Finance Agency over the next 5 years. Crucially Housing for All takes a genuine whole of Government approach to creating a long-term, sustainable housing system for Ireland. I am confident that the breadth of measures and reforms therein will remove impediments to progress and provide for the delivery of much needed additional accommodation at scale. This will prove to be of benefit to all those seeking safe, affordable and secure accommodation including our growing student population.

Specifically, Housing for All contains a commitment to support technological universities to develop purpose-built student accommodation where such a requirement exists, through access to appropriate financing, and a specific action in relation to legislating to allow for Technological Universities to borrow from the Housing Finance Agency. My Department is already working closely with DFHERIS to deliver on this commitment and I expect top see progress in the near future. I know that The Technological University Dublin – the largest higher education institution in the State – has identified a student accommodation requirement and proposal and there is similar potential to do so amongst other technological universities. Existing more established Universities have already availed of this loan facility to the tune of €170 million over the past 2-3 years to aim to deliver more than 1,400 additional student specific units.