Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 June 2015
100. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will address concerns that the combination of rising rental prices and lack of supply of accommodation for students attending third level institutions will prohibit a large proportion of students from living within a reasonable distance of their campus next year; and her plans to address the lack of supply of student accommodation. [26007/15]
View answerAs the Minister knows, there was a crisis in the provision of student accommodation last year and there is a bigger crisis this year. I hope she will be able to update the House on some measures she has taken or what she has done to help to address the crisis and increase supply.
I appreciate the concerns about the availability of accommodation for students and, for that reason, have asked the Higher Education Authority to report on the issue. The authority is working on a draft report on the availability of student accommodation which will be available shortly and give us an up-to-date picture of the situation. In that context, I will continue to work with Government colleagues and stakeholders to explore ways to increase the availability of student accommodation, where needed.
Many parts of the country are not experiencing the pressure on accommodation that we are seeing in Dublin and, to a lesser extent, Cork and Galway. Some institutions provide a range of accommodation and all colleges have an obligation to work with students' unions and other groups to provide students with details on accommodation options. Initiatives such as the USI's Homes for Study are of help to students and list suitable accommodation available to rent across Ireland. In the longer term the Government is committed to addressing the housing shortage through Construction 2020. While it will not solve all of our problems immediately, I am confident that the implementation of Construction 2020 will provide us with a sustainable housing stock in the medium to longer term.
The unfortunate reality is that the Minister, like her predecessor, has taken no action to address and introduce measures to improve the accommodation crisis facing students this summer. We had a crisis in 2013, another last summer and there is an even bigger crisis this year. Leaving certificate students are already in the cities, Dublin and Galway in particular where the crisis is most acute, scurrying around trying to find accommodation. Some have started to pay for their accommodation already so great is the fear that they will not be able to source accommodation later. While this has been happening under the nose of the Government, neither it nor the Minister has taken measures to deal with the issue. The Minister has referred to the fact that she has asked the HEA to put together a report. A report will not address the issue. This is a crisis of three years standing. In March the Minister indicated that the report she had requested would be available in April, but today she is telling us it is due in a few weeks time. Meanwhile, students are increasingly concerned as to whether they will be able to find accommodation and how on earth they will be able to afford to pay for it. Are there other measures the Minister could take at this belated stage to address the problem? At a minimum, will she try to ensure some steps are taken to ensure the crisis will not be even worse next year?
I have engaged with the HEA, the Union of Students in Ireland and individual universities and institutes of technology on the issue. While many of them provide extensive accommodation, I accept that the issue is particularly critical in the Dublin area and, to some extent, Galway and Cork. I am aware from discussions that some of the third level institutions are actively engaged on the issue of additional accommodation concerns. The HEA will report on the issue in the near future. The issue is under consideration in the context of the Construction 2020 strategy, but in the meantime there is active engagement with the higher education institutions to seek to provide extra accommodation for students.
All we hear from the Minister is that she is engaged with the students' unions, the HEA and institutions. She has mentioned that she is aware of some measures they may be taking. Will she enlighten us on what measures they are taking? If she is aware of measures being taken, I would like to know about them. I have no doubt that the students facing an accommodation crisis this summer would also like to know about them, but the reality is that there is nothing happening, apart from gathering reports to cover the Government's embarrassment about the fact that it has done nothing to try to address the issue. The figures show that the further away students are from a third level institution and the closer they are to the grant threshold and miss out on it, the lower their participation at third level. The chronic participation rate for these categories will only worsen as a result of the crisis. Added to this is the €1,000 increase in the student registration fee delivered by the Minister and the abolition of postgraduate grants entirely for postgraduate students. The Minister has come here today with nothing to tell us because the Government has done nothing to address the issue for the past three years. Unfortunately, many hard-pressed third level students across the country and the many leaving certificate students who have just completed their examinations will suffer as a result, yet the Minister can offer us nothing that indicates that she will take significant measures in the next 12 months to ensure the problem will not get worse next year.
I am somewhat surprised at the vehemence of the Deputy in his response because the collapse of the construction industry provides much of the reason we do not have accommodation available.
Let us deal with the Minister's role in the matter.
Up to a few years ago students were able to find accommodation, but the construction industry collapsed because the economy had collapsed. As a result and as the Deputy is well aware, funding had to be cut and the student registration fee had to be increased because of the state of the economy. I am aware that some institutes are engaged in seeking to find a solution. We also have, for example, the strategic investment fund set up by the Government which is one possible source of funding that is being explored. There have been schemes such as the one to which I referred, the USI's Homes for Study scheme and there are others that we have discussed with the USI.
A practical response is what is required, but also a more medium-term strategy, which the Government has announced in terms of the housing 2020 strategy, which includes student accommodation.
