Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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271. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the efforts being made to address the chronic shortage of accommodation for students in Limerick. [29047/26]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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The new National Student Accommodation Strategy 2026-2035 sets out a pathway to make higher education more accessible by addressing two critical challenges, accommodation supply and viability and accommodation affordability.

To address supply and viability the strategy sets out a balanced approach including: -

• A commitment to long term State-backed measures to activate supply, working in partnership with the private sector.
• Support for the development of accommodation on public campuses as well as on private sites near to campus, subject to State Aid clearance.
• The development of a framework, in line with relevant Departmental consents, to support Technological Universities to develop nomination agreements with the private sector.
• The expansion of the Technological Sector Student Accommodation Programme to include traditional universities enabling the sector as a whole to meet demand; and
• The enhanced supply of student beds through promotion of Rent-a-Room accommodation.

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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272. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the National Student Accommodation Strategy 2026-2035 will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22106/26]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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The National Student Accommodation Strategy 2026-2035 was published last month. The strategy sets out a clear, long-term pathway to improving access to higher education by tackling two key challenges: accommodation supply and viability, and affordability.

Since the first strategy was introduced in 2017, more than 16,000 purpose-built student accommodation beds have been delivered, bringing total national PBSA stock to over 49,000 beds. As of the end of March 2026, commencement notices have issued for over 2,700 beds, with a further 14,233 beds with planning permission.

Current projections indicate an emerging demand for approximately 42,000 additional student accommodation beds over the next decade, underscoring the scale of the challenge and opportunity.

The strategy responds to this by removing the barriers that have prevented student accommodation development at the scale required to meet this level of demand.

To address supply and viability the strategy sets out a balanced approach including: -

• A commitment to long term State-backed measures to activate supply, working in partnership with the private sector.
• Support for the development of accommodation on public campuses as well as on private sites near to campus, subject to State Aid clearance.
• The development of a framework, in line with relevant Departmental consents, to support universities to develop nomination agreements with the private sector.
• The expansion of the Technological Sector Student Accommodation Programme to include traditional universities enabling the sector as a whole to meet demand; and
• The enhanced supply of student beds through promotion of Rent-a-Room accommodation.