Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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386. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of student accommodation units available in Cork city, Blarney, Mallow and Glanmire, as of September 2025; the number of units currently under construction or with approved planning; and the projected shortfall against third-level enrolments for the 2025-2026 academic year. [49410/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I am acutely conscious of the challenges facing students, including availability of student accommodation, and am focused on delivering targeted and effective interventions which support learners.

Supply data indicates there are:

Our HEI’s also report on the number of Dig’s style student accommodation beds available in their area and based on the latest available data from MTU (September 2025) 461 homes are registered with them to offer accommodation to students spread across the city. Some of these properties would have more than one student bed available. Currently UCC report 46 beds available respectively.

There were 35,580 third-level enrolments (full and part-time) for publicly funded HEI’s in Cork for the academic year of 2023/24.Data regarding the academic year of 2024/25 is not currently available. Given that not all students want or require student accommodation it is difficult to give an accurate figure for a shortfall.

However, the 2024 HEA Student Survey (issued to HEA funded Higher Education Institutions) provides an insight into students’ term time accommodation. 36% of students indicated that they were living at home, with just 1% saying they were living at home while looking for accommodation 12% were living in Digs accommodation and 18% of students surveyed were living in private rented accommodation and the remaining 33% were living in purpose-built student accommodation.

A new student accommodation strategy is in development and is due for completion later this year. The strategy will aim to enable viability measures to increase the supply of student accommodation and to provide affordability supports to students facing the greatest socioeconomic challenges.