Thomas Byrne
Question:96. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills to outline his efforts to prevent a student accommodation crisis in autumn 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12393/16]
View answerThursday, 26 May 2016
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Written answers
The Government is very conscious of the concerns regarding the availability of accommodation for students. The reality is that dealing comprehensively with this issue will only take place as part of a more general programme to address the major housing and homelessness issue, and the new Government has appointed a specific Minister for Housing with a commitment to develop an Action Plan for Housing within 100 days. The Dáil has also established a Committee on Housing and Homelessness to review the implications of these problems and to make recommendations in that regard.
In relation to the impact of this issue on student accommodation, the report, Student Accommodation: Demand & Supply, which was published last year by the Minister for Education and Skills sets out clearly that the demand for student accommodation outstrips supply in certain areas and will continue to do so in the coming years.
The full report can be accessed at http://www.education.ie/en/Publications/Education-Reports/Report-on-Student-Accommodation-Demand-and-Supply.pdf
There are 13 useful recommendations in this report some of which include capital financing, tax considerations and planning issues, as well as support for the rent-a-room scheme. The previous Minister for Education and Skills introduced two immediate actions to begin this work.
Firstly, funding was provided by the HEA to the Union of Students' (USI) in Ireland to progress short-term solutions for students in need of accommodation. This funding will allow USI to develop their homes.usi.ie website, to communicate more effectively to student and homeowners, and to carry out research into this important issue.
Secondly, the establishment of an inter-departmental steering group to oversee this work. This group will provide a coordinating mechanism to ensure that the higher education institutions have access to information on new potential funding and delivery models.
In addition to this, I should point out that a number of our Higher Education Institutions have Student Accommodation projects ongoing, or in the pipeline, with a number of additional on-campus Student Accommodation bed-spaces to come online from September 2016. Maynooth University have 296 new on-campus bed spaces, and UCD have 350 new on-campus bed spaces, which are due to come on stream in Autumn 2016.
In addition to this, five other Higher Education Institutions are currently engaged in, or going through the planning phases for student accommodation projects, namely National University of Ireland Galway, University of Limerick, Dublin City University, University College Cork and Dublin Institute of Technology.
Finally, my Department is also examining other potential options for funding projects in conjunction with relevant stakeholders.