Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 February 2024
1. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in relation to the new student accommodation policy for which he sought Cabinet approval, if he can he provide details of the refurbishment grant which he had outlined. [9106/24]
View answerI ask the Minister to provide the details of the refurbishment grant for university student accommodation. Can he confirm as he had stated previously that it was the universities that had requested this?
I thank Deputy Farrell for this important question. As she knows, I recently received Government approval for an overarching policy approach for student accommodation in Ireland. This policy looks at a number of ways to stimulate supply of student accommodation, including standardised design, continued promotion of the rent-a-room scheme and recognition of the Government's commitment to reactivating vacant and derelict properties.
I am developing schemes to enable the repurposing of existing on-campus buildings or refurbishment of vacant properties located close to campuses as student accommodation, in consultation and alignment with initiatives being led by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
Many campuses are located in regional towns and cities where vacancy rates are higher. Government policy in this area, through the Town Centre First policy document identifies the need to bring vibrancy back to town centres through residential development. Refurbished properties also benefit from a much lower carbon footprint. Through the vacant property refurbishment grant under the Croí Cónaithe Towns Fund, 6,697 applications have been received to date, of which 3,764 have been approved.
All local authorities, which now have a dedicated full-time vacant homes officer, are currently undertaking a survey of vacant and derelict properties. The Department of housing has provided data on vacancy and facilitated engagement for my departmental officials with local authority officials, who have knowledge and information on relevant vacant properties. My officials and the higher education sector are working with these officers to identify suitable proposals for review.
I have written to the technological universities and asked them to send in proposals and ideas by 15 March. This week a workshop is taking place with all of them along with the HEA. We want to build purpose-built student accommodation. Like the Deputy, we also want to see if anything can be done quicker and we believe refurbishing vacant properties will be part of this. I have heard this from the presidents of technological universities as I have travelled around the country. Sometimes it might be on campus and more likely than not it might be accommodation nearby. Sinn Féin's policy document on housing and Government policy on housing recognise the value of looking at vacant property. I want students also to be able to benefit from that.
I am somewhat perplexed by this whole thing. I am unclear as to why Cabinet approval was needed. I have concerns about how fully it was thought through. In 2022 the Irish Independent reported that: "Higher Education Minister Simon Harris is today seeking Government approval for a strategy around State investment in campus accommodation." This was to involve a "Grant paid to colleges, to allow for repurposing of vacant housing stock to accommodate students." I do not understand why Cabinet approval was needed for that when, according to the Irish Independent, it was already under way in 2022. I cannot understand why, as the Minister said, the universities requested this when they do not seem to have any real vacant or derelict stock. From my own the questioning of them, so far I have only been able to identify 80 beds. Why would they ask for grants which most will not be able to use? I know now what the Minister stated today and I also understand that at the committee earlier today there was talk about commercial units, vacant units as well. This was not previously mentioned in that announcement.
As the Deputy knows, on a number of occasions I have brought to Cabinet short-term policy approaches that we could take to get student accommodation activated, particularly where they had planning permission. More recently, I did bring that longer term policy approach. That had a number of elements, including the vacancy element. There is not much of a mystery here. For the first time in the history of this State we want to provide taxpayers' funds to technological universities to help them build student accommodation. We want to help them to build student accommodation but we also want to help them to activate accommodation that may be available in their region. I have figures here from all local authorities that are home to a HEI campus and very significant numbers of properties have been deemed to be derelict.
For example, in the Deputy's city, Galway, there are 425 vacant properties and 32 derelict properties. I want to see if our universities can play a part in bringing some of them back to life as short-term solutions for student accommodation. That is simply it and we are looking forward to proposals coming in on what technological believe they can do by 15 March.
This is a bit different from what I understood and many people would have understood from the original announcement of this policy. First, it was not clear that the Minister was talking about commercial units as well. It was not clear that he was only talking about technological universities. My understanding from the committee meeting we had was that it applied to the university sector in general and the Minister had stated that the universities had requested this. I submitted parliamentary questions and I even submitted a freedom of information request but I have not been able to find records of the universities requesting this. I had also done research on how many vacant properties were available on campus. All I could find was that it would add 80 beds. It was not clear that the Minister was talking about commercial properties. Has he just now decided to add to it because the reality is this is not something that exists on university campuses? I would be interested in the Minister's view on that.
I am a little bit perplexed about the line of inquiry but we want to come at this from every possible angle. We know there are vacant properties in the regions and in many towns where HEIs are based. The Deputy is correct when she says it is not just for technological universities but for any universities, although I think it will be of particular benefit to our technological universities. I already know of two universities that have been linking with my Department. They believe they have identified vacant buildings in their region and they are looking forward to putting proposals in place.
Commercial-----
I do not believe these are in that space. We need to look at every way of coming at this. I know the Deputy agrees on this. We want to build purpose-built student accommodation, whether in DCU or Maynooth, but we know that it takes time to get from an idea through design, planning and construction. There could be opportunities in the meantime to look at vacant stock. I want to cast the net wide and invite our universities to bring forward their proposals by 15 March.
