Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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80. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the immediate actions that have been taken to alleviate the student housing shortage for this academic year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46014/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I’m acutely aware of the challenges facing students in securing accommodation this year, and my Department and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage recognises this as a critical issue and are working closely together to address these issues.

Approximately 40% of students who rent accommodation do so in purpose built student accommodation, with 60% in the wider private rental market. Accommodation shortages in the private rental market, which have been made worse by the effects of Covid, have impacted significantly on students this year.

Fundamentally, the challenge is one of supply. As a country, we need to dramatically increase the supply of all types of housing and accommodation, including student accommodation.

That is why the Government has launched Housing for All, led by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. This sets out a series of actions which will be delivered to fix the housing crisis. The plan is backed by the largest ever housing budget in the history of the State to transform our housing system, in excess of €20bn.

We have also been taking steps under the National Student Accommodation Strategy to support increased supply.

This has included ensuring that higher education institutions have access to low-cost financing. Since 2017, the Housing Finance Agency has approved a total of €157 million in loans, to support the provision of more than 1,400 new student bed spaces across three universities.

During the Summer, together with Minister Donohoe and Minister O’Brien, I announced that €75 million of financing had been successfully sourced for the Council of Europe Bank for the building of student accommodation in universities.

Housing For All also contains a commitment to support technological universities to develop purpose-built student accommodation, 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. I will be working to progress this with colleagues across Government.

My Department has also been engaging with the higher education sector, together with the Department of Housing, to work through the range of issues identified by institutions to seek to develop a stronger pipeline of student accommodation.

The two Departments held a meeting with representatives of the higher education sector last week and I am pleased to confirm a working group is being established with the representative bodies with a view to tabling proposals to boost the development of student accommodation on our campuses.