Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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2624.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the grants available for publicly built student accommodation on lands by higher education institutions; the conditions, if any, applied to those grants; the amount of capital provided by his Department for this purpose in 2021, 2022 and 2023; a breakdown of award by higher education institution for each year, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33010/24]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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There are currently no grants available to the HEI sector, including the TUs, for the development of purpose built student accommodation.

As a result of the NDP review, the Government committed €100m to progress over 1,000 new student beds in April 2024. This allocation enables the activation of Phase 1 of UCD’s stalled student project for delivery of 493 student beds for delivery in 2027/28.

It also provides the funding for the previously activated projects with Maynooth University to progress to onsite construction for delivery of 116 beds in 2025, and the DCU project for delivery of 405 beds in 2027 which is currently proceeding through the tender process. Funding for these projects was approved as an emergency response to bridge the viability gap for HEI developments with planning permission that stalled as a result of increased construction costs.

The first National Student Accommodation Strategy was launched in July 2017 and runs until 2024. My officials and I are currently developing a new strategy for student accommodation which will be published in 2024.

This strategy will align with the long-term student accommodation policy and methodology which was approved by Government in January 2024. The aim of this policy is to increase the supply of student accommodation and to examine alternative solutions that will remove accommodation as a barrier to higher education through:

• Increasing the supply of student accommodation and relieving pressure on the private rental sector
• Supporting balanced regional development and the Technological University Transformation Agenda; proposals for accommodation projects for Technological Universities are currently under assessment.
• Enabling supply of new below market rate accommodation for target cohorts
• Reducing cost of delivery of new Purpose-Built Student Accommodation through development of standardised design options for Purpose Built Student Accommodation
• Promoting efficient use of existing building stock
• Examining commuting alternatives to accommodation close to campus
• Continued support of the rent-a-room scheme for provision of digs type accommodation