Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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138. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the funding that he has provided to University College Cork and Munster Technological University to build student accommodation in 2023. [51644/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Historically, Higher Education Institutions have used borrowings to develop their own student accommodation, without State support. Institutions have accessed financing at competitive rates from sources such as the Housing Finance Agency and the European Investment Bank.

In more recent times, the student accommodation sector has been impacted by the same construction inflation and global supply chain challenges affecting the wider construction sector, and this has presented challenges for the existing student accommodation model.

In this context, I have brought a proposal on student accommodation to the Cabinet Committee on Housing and received support to progress a new policy that supports the delivery of additional purpose-built student accommodation.

This would involve the State for the first time assisting higher education institutions with the cost of building student accommodation so as to ensure increased availability and promote greater access in particular for priority student groups in line with the National Access Plan. To advance this work I have recently established a dedicated Student Accommodation Unit to draft an updated policy for Student Housing and Accommodation as a matter of urgency. This unit will lead the examination and development of a range of policy options to increase supply in the context of Government's overall Housing for All policy.