Written answers

Tuesday, 2 November 2021

Department of Education and Skills

Student Accommodation

Photo of Rose Conway-WalshRose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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690. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress on the commitment in the programme for Government to provide more accommodation on and off-campus, using cost-rental and other models; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52638/21]

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I understand that this is a very difficult time for students seeking to secure accommodation. The Government recognises this as a critical issue and as a country, we need to dramatically increase the supply of all types of housing and accommodation, including student accommodation.

The Programme for Government, Our Shared Future contained a commitment to work with higher education institutions to ensure that more accommodation is built on and off campus, using cost-rental and other models.

An important element of this is 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.

My Department and I have been engaging with the Department of Housing, Local representatives from the higher education sector on this issue. Together with these stakeholders and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, we are working to develop a stronger pipeline of affordable student accommodation. As part of this work we will look at the potential for the use of funding models such as cost-rental in the higher education sector, as well as examining existing barriers to building affordable student accommodation.

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