Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 October 2021
181. Deputy James Lawless asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the actions he is taking to ensure third-level educational institutions build and operate not-for-profit purpose-built student accommodation to alleviate the student housing crisis. [51433/21]
View answerI understand that this is a very difficult time for students seeking to secure accommodation. The Government recognises this as a critical issue.
Fundamentally the challenge in one of supply and as a country, we need to increase the supply of all types of housing and accommodation, including student accommodation.
That is why the Government has launched Housing for All, led by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. This sets out a series of actions which will be delivered to fix the housing crisis. The plan is backed by the largest ever housing budget in the history of the State to transform our housing system, in excess of €20bn.
We have also been taking steps under the National Student Accommodation Strategy, published in 2017, to support increased supply. Eight key targets and 27 actions are outlined in the strategy. The target for new purpose built student accommodation beds was for the provision of 7,000 bed spaces by end 2019 and a total of 21,000 additional purpose built student accommodation beds by 2024.
The 2019 target was exceeded, with 8,300 bed spaces completed by the end of 2019.
As of Q2 2021, 10,700 bed spaces have been completed, work is underway on site on an additional 3,500, with planning permission granted on a further 11,300.
Actions under the strategy have also included ensuring that higher education institutions have access to low-cost financing. Since 2017, the Housing Finance Agency has approved a total of €157 million in loans, to support the provision of more than 1,400 new student bed spaces across three universities.
During the Summer, together with Minister Donohoe and Minister O’Brien, I announced that €75 million of financing had been successfully sourced for the Council of Europe Bank for the building of student accommodation in universities.
Housing For All also contains a commitment to support technological universities to develop purpose-built student accommodation, through access to appropriate financing, and a specific action in relation to legislating to allow for Technological Universities to borrow from the Housing Finance Agency. I will be working to progress this with colleagues across Government.
My Department has been engaging with the higher education sector, together with the Department of Housing, to work through the range of issues identified by institutions to seek to develop a stronger pipeline of student accommodation.
