Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent)
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549. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will allocate €2 billion in Budget 2025 to fund the building of 30,000 student accommodation units to address the severe shortage of affordable and accessible housing for students; if he will provide details on any planned emergency accommodation funds for students (details supplied) as requested by an organisation (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37917/24]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The availability and cost of accommodation is a challenge for many students especially at this time of year. I met with USI and representative Student Unions last week and we have an extensive discussion on student accommodation and other matters of importance.

A capital investment of €100m from the National Development Plan windfall allocation enabled the progression of 1,014 new Purpose-Built Student Accommodation beds - 30% of the new beds will be ringfenced for target group students at below market rates. Construction has commenced on Maynooth University’s 116 bed project, UCD’s 493 bed project will go to tender in 2025 and DCU’s 405 bed project is progressing through the tender process.

Building on Government support for a student accommodation policy, I am developing a new Student Accommodation Strategy for increasing supply of state supported student accommodation, reducing the cost of delivery through development of standardised design guidance, promoting efficient use of existing building stock through refurbishment and an examination of vacancy, while supporting balanced regional development through the Technological University feasibility study.

The new strategy will also continue to have a focus on the promotion of digs accommodation as a key provider of flexible and affordable accommodation. The 2024 rent-a-room campaign commenced on 9 August 2024 across print and social media channels. As of the 28th of August 2024, a total of 4,439 digs beds are being advertised by our universities and colleges, an increase of 1,839 beds since the beginning of the campaign. This campaign is complimented by individual localised campaigns undertaken by the Higher Education providers and students unions.

In advance of the 2023/2024 academic year, an additional €440,000 was allocated by Government to the Student Assistance Fund (SAF) specifically for any student who may find themselves in financial difficulty arising from their housing or student accommodation situation.

This increased funding to the SAF is intended for assisting students in funding emergency accommodation. However, there will also be discretion to provide funding as per the SAF guidelines for other emergency needs such as transport costs where emergency accommodation is not available to the student.

This fund is intended as a top up to existing practices and does not preclude HEIs continuing to determine how much of the main SAF fund should be used for emergency situations.