Vol. 1042 No. 4
69. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science for an update on the progress to expand the current offering of student accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40586/23]
In recent days and weeks, we have seen many young people starting college or starting their second, third and fourth year. It is a time that should be so exciting for young people but it is clouded by the housing crisis and the very real impact it has on students. I ask the Minister to give an update on what he is doing to expand the current offering of student accommodation.
I join Deputy Farrell in recognising the major milestone that starting third level education is for so many young people, and indeed not-so-young people. The Deputy and I have not met in the House since the results came out. This year, we saw three out of five students getting their top choice of course, and I acknowledge that achievement. However, the Deputy is right that the housing challenge is real and places stress and difficulty on students, particularly those who find they need to move to a different part of the country to undertake their study.
I assure the Deputy, students and parents that we are working tirelessly to try to address the supply of student accommodation, given the wider rental market challenges as well. I am very pleased that these are not just words and that we have changed Government policy regarding student accommodation. In November, as the Deputy will recall, I got the go-ahead from the Government for €61 million in capital and current funding to unlock the development of around 1,100 student accommodation beds. These were beds in Dublin City University, DCU, Limerick, Galway and Maynooth, which had planning permission but had been deemed to be not viable. We have intervened for the first time with taxpayers' money to start building purpose-built accommodation, including 242 beds at the University of Galway, which the Deputy knows very well. These are developments that had planning permission but had stalled because of increased construction and financing costs.
I want to go further faster. We are working with University College Dublin, UCD, and Trinity College Dublin to try to get two projects over the line. I intend to update the Government, probably as soon as next week or the week after, regarding the DCU development as well. We have provided €1 million to our technological universities - I know there are some questions on this later - so that they can prepare their plans for student accommodation. I expect to start seeing plans from each of the technological universities in 2024. This is an area that is receiving my attention.
To provide context, we are seeing students return to third level with more beds this year than last year. There are an additional 938 college-owned student accommodation beds this year compared to the last academic year, and 674 of them are in the University of Galway. There are also over 2,000 additional privately-funded beds due for completion this autumn.
The reality is that the cost of student accommodation is totally beyond the reach of many families. The issue here is that this is locking more young people out of access to third level education. We see that and hear it from our students' unions consistently. We also hear it when we are speaking to students. Yesterday, I was in UCD and I was told by one student that he is commuting from Cavan every day and spends many hours commuting as a result. In 2018, the Government had a report stating that by 2024, we would need an additional 21,000 student beds. Now we have learned from the Department again that current demand for student accommodation is over 30,000.
It is glaringly obvious that the Government is failing on the housing crisis in general. That is having an impact on students that exactly mirrors the wider housing crisis. I spoke to students across Dublin yesterday who told me that the cost of student accommodation is as high as €12,000. Who can afford that?
On the issue of cost, there are a number of ways the Government can help with the cost of rent, specifically for students. Last year, the Deputy will be aware that we got the finance Bill changed to make sure students could avail of the rent tax credit, including if they were renting a room or digs, and that their parents could avail of it if they were renting college-owned accommodation or purpose-built student accommodation. I heard the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, talking about wanting to increase the rent tax credit. If that increases in the budget, as I think it should, it must also increase for students and their parents to be able to avail of it. I think we should see a doubling of it.
We can also help people with the costs through grants. This year, for the first time in a very long time, student grants increased above the rate of inflation. While there are inflationary pressures, we have increased grants above the rate of inflation. We also gave students €1,000 back in reduced registration fees.
I will be looking at different ways we can help students with the cost of rent and education between now and the budget on 10 October. We also need to increase supply. We need to do both. That is why we are now rolling up our sleeves and investing taxpayers' money in building student accommodation, not just leaving it to the market any more or to universities of their own volition.
The Minister and I can agree on that; of course we need to increase supply. That is the only real way we will solve the housing crisis that is impacting on so many different people. I take the Minister's point that he is working on this matter but the reality is that it is still costing people thousands of euro. That is not realistic. I know the Minister is interested in access to higher education or third level education no matter what avenue people want to take.
The other issue that has come up for me consistently is the regulation of digs. I am working on the issue and as soon as I have that work published, I will contact the Minister immediately. One of the things that stood out for me was young women telling me they cannot even lock their doors for privacy. As a young woman, and I know I am not as young as the women in question, I would not feel comfortable not being able to lock my bedroom door. There is also the issue of facilities, and not having access to them. Then there is the whole issue of there being no rent book, no access to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, and so on. I understand digs regulation needs to be workable but it is needed. I ask the Minister to support me on that.
I appreciate the Deputy's sincerity on this, and I will work with her on it. I have talked to the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, the UCD students' union and many students about this. As I said in our previous exchange, this is about getting this right. We need to make sure that every student and homeowner goes into this with their eyes wide open. If someone rents a room in a house, the homeowner does not have the right to open the door and check that the room is tidy. They are not the student's mother and the student has to be given notice. What we are doing as soon as today is publishing a draft licence agreement on websites in colleges that will show students and homeowners what should be best practice, and what people should sign up for. That is a first step.
I have an open mind on the issue of regulation. I do, truthfully, but I want to get it right. As with the Deputy, I do not want to end up reducing supply. We had approximately 2,500 rooms to rent on college websites as recently as last Friday. At a time when students are looking for accommodation, I want to make it easy. I know there are older people, some of whom I have heard in the media, renting out a spare room in their homes. I know it is working quite well. I do not want to make it an overly burdensome issue and I know Deputy Farrell does not either. I am very happy to look at legislation with the Deputy but the draft licence agreement is a start and we are starting that now.
70. Deputy Verona Murphy asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to detail the projected allocation of capital funding that will be made available to the SETU Wexford campus development plan to ensure the development of new buildings and delivery of additional courses and new disciplines, whilst also ensuring the provision of adequate student accommodation to cater for the planned new campus in Wexford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40794/23]
I ask the Minister to detail the projected allocation of capital funding that will be made available for the SETU Wexford campus development, and the plan to ensure the development of new buildings, the delivery of additional courses and new disciplines, while also ensuring the provision of adequate student accommodation at the new campus in Wexford.
I thank Deputy Murphy for raising this issue with me, as she does regularly. I think she is also a former student of the Wexford campus. I am delighted that we now have a South East Technological University, SETU. It is key. We have given a very clear commitment that, as part of that, there has to be a real and meaningful campus in Wexford. They are not just my words, though they are mine too. They are also a very clear commitment in the strategic plan being published by the South East Technological University. I know from talking to the president of the university, Professor Veronica Campbell, and the chair of the university who happens to hail from Wexford, Professor Paddy Prendergast, that they want to see this happen as well.
I am strongly committed to the development of a high-quality campus environment in Wexford for the South East Technological University. I am aware that it has been a long-term ambition to secure a suitable, permanent campus in Wexford to facilitate higher education progression and integration in the south east. I have also met students in Wexford, particularly students in lifelong learning, who tell me they would not have been able to access third level education were it not for the Wexford campus.
Imagine how much more we could do if we had a fit-for-purpose modern campus.
As the Deputy knows, SETU has, in recent years, been working closely with Wexford County Council to help identify an appropriate site for a permanent home for its Wexford campus. As part of this engagement, a preferred site, which is well known locally, was identified. Following a very lengthy negotiation process, agreement could not be reached on price and the council is now progressing the acquisition of the site by way of a compulsory purchase order, CPO. The process is ongoing and has been for a long time but it is almost there. I expect to hear a positive update next month and I will keep the Deputy informed in that regard.
My Department and the Higher Education Authority are engaging with the SETU about how it wishes to advance a number of capital projects across its campuses, including the Wexford campus. As the Deputy will appreciate, I am not in a position to say the budget for the Wexford campus will be a certain amount because that is not how we fund these things. We identify projects and they go out to tender. I can say that we are not in the business of spending a lot of money to buy a major site only to leave it idle. I will work hand in glove with the SETU to make this a campus with a real ambition in its scale.
I thank the Minister. Fifty-five acres is a substantial area for the new Wexford campus. I spoke recently with Professor Veronica Campbell, as the Minister mentioned. I believe she is looking for €7 million to progress the SETU planning application. I heard the Minister say to Deputy Mairéad Farrell that he had allocated €1 million to further applications. Perhaps I have that wrong and the Minister might have been referring only to student accommodation.
Wexford is very close to my heart, apart from the fact that I represent the constituency. The campus itself needs to grow hugely. There are approximately 1,100 students currently on the campus but there are no science, technology, engineering or mathematics, STEM, courses attached. Wexford has been left behind when it comes to foreign direct investment and one of the reasons for that is we do not have immediate access to a research unit. That is what I have been told by certain investors and IDA Ireland. We need to grow the campus with STEM courses.
I assure the Deputy that the reference I made to €1 million was in respect of money given to the technological universities for planning for student accommodation. We have a much larger capital budget available. In fact, we have a new fund, the technological sector strategic projects fund, TSSPF. That fund will be available to Professor Campbell and others to take forward projects, including the project at the Wexford campus.
The Deputy is right about the issue of research. One of the big game-changers for technological universities is access to education in the regions but also that research function and the ability to collaborate with industry. I too hear from business leaders, IDA Ireland and others that it is key to securing successful foreign direct investment, which I know is a key ask and issue for the people of Wexford.
Sequentially, what we need to do is to secure the site and allow the CPO process to conclude. We need that to conclude with a degree of urgency and haste. I will then be working very closely with the SETU on its master plan for the Wexford campus. It is a matter for it to determine which courses it wishes to provide on which campus but I will work closely with its representatives.
Rosslare Europort has today been named port of the year in Malmö, Sweden. I congratulate those involved. I am glad to have played my part. A young scientist, biochemical engineer or something of that nature from Waterford is doing research in my village of Ramsgrange. A local farmer has given him land to carry out research on carbon capturing. That is a Waterford chap working in County Wexford. We must have the capacity to combine with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, both of which are situated in Wexford. It makes absolute sense that the new campus in Wexford would facilitate a research centre and STEM courses. That is primary. I know the capital infrastructure purportedly available for the SETU is in the region of €300 million, or at least that was the ask and I can see that is the need. When will it happen? Delivery is paramount. We cannot tell farmers in ten years' time that what we were telling them today is wrong. We need this research and we need it now.
I agree with the Deputy's last point. I am fed up with the lecturing tone that is taken to farmers. They know better than most about the climate. They are out on their farms while we are talking about it in the Dáil. They can see the changes and want sustainability, as I heard at the National Ploughing Championships. Research is our friend as we seek to come up with innovative approaches. We are funding a number of research projects through Science Foundation Ireland. The Deputy is right that the technological universities are well placed to further accelerate that and to work in partnership with farmers. We need food and agriculture so we must consider how to do it in a sustainable way. I agree fully with the Deputy in that regard. I also congratulate Rosslare Europort.
We should take a step back and note we did not have a university in the south east not long ago and we now do. Many people, though not the Deputy, doubted we would ever get a university in the south east and we now have one. It is going pretty well. It is going well in respect of the leadership and the scale of ambition. It is going well in that the number of applications through the CAO was up this year compared with last year. However, I also fully accept that for the university to reach its full potential, it needs major capital investment, including a fit-for-purpose Wexford campus with student accommodation. Those are my next two priorities. I will focus on capital investment, the Waterford Crystal site, the Wexford campus site, the potential for a veterinary college and student accommodation. I will keep in touch with the Deputy on those matters.
71. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science what plans he has for the proposals outlined in his Department’s recently published options paper, Funding the Future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40587/23]
The Minister recently published the options paper, Funding the Future. Will he outline what proposals his Department is considering enacting from the range of options presented in that paper and what he might be considering as part of budget 2024? If he wants to give us a detailed outline, that would be no problem.
I have to wait to read the Deputy's submission. I thank her for the question. It is that awkward time at parliamentary questions where I am supposed to say that these are matters for budget day on 10 October, which is true. We are in the period where Departments are engaging on what their budget allocations will look like next year. Let us start with what we know. I want to see us take steps in the budget in a couple of weeks' time to address the cost of education for families and learners. We have tried to take a number of steps in each of the budgets since this new Department was established three years ago. Last year, as the Deputy will recall, we made a number of important interventions. We saw a reduction in registration fees of €1,000 for all full-time undergraduate students. All student maintenance grant recipients received an extra payment, a bonus payment, if you like, at Christmas time. We saw students in receipt of the postgraduate fee contribution receive a one-off increase of €1,000, increasing their support from €3,500 to €4,500. More than €20 million was provided to the student assistance fund. All student grants increased by between 10% and 14%, which was above the rate of inflation. Those are things on which I wish to build.
One of the measures I was pleased with in last year's budget was a permanent reduction of €500 in the fees for anyone with a household income of less than €100,000. Only approximately 10,000 students have applied for that scheme and we think approximately 40,000 are eligible. We must continue to explore why more people have not availed of that scheme and consider what more we can do to promote it. There are other things I definitely want to do.
Some of the measures in last year's cost-of-living package worked and made a real difference. I cannot commit to them today but I know that when we reduced fees last year, it helped many people for the reasons the Deputy and I discussed earlier. There are anomalies in the student grant scheme that need to be looked at. I do not like that people cannot access it for part-time education, particularly if they are a part of an under-represented group, for example, lone parents or students with disabilities. Some people need to undertake education on a part-time basis that works for them. That is equally valid and as good as full-time education. We must consider how to support such people financially. I am acutely aware of the issue of PhD stipends. We will be looking again this year at the issues of fees, grants and PhD stipends, but also at some of the anomalies I think exist in the system, including the whole holiday income disregard and how much students can earn at weekends.
We have been discussing the considerable burden of the cost of accommodation on students and the very real impact that has on students' ability to access third level education. Students who are going into sixth year now are considering what they will do, going forward, and wondering if they will be able to access third level education. Another thing that needs to be talked about is the student contribution charge, which I call a fee. The free fees initiative was one of the great innovations in Irish public policy. That €3,000 charge is a fee by another name. I recognise that the Minister reduced that by €1,000 as a one-off measure in last year's budget. I recognise what he said in respect of those families who clearly do not realise that this reduction applies to them. I do not understand why we do not just reduce the charge. We should be looking to reduce the student contribution charge on an ongoing basis. Sinn Féin's alternative budget last year included getting rid of fees over a three-year period. I understand it is called the student contribution charge but these are fees by another name.
If you are sitting at home and having to find €3,000, you do not care what the Government calls it. It is effectively a fee in the sense that it is a bill that must be paid. If you have more than one child in college at the same time, as many people do, the impact is very real. The cost of going to college is, of course, even more expensive if students have to move out of home. I am acutely aware of the issue.
What we have done this year, and it has been quite a good process, is publish the options paper. We have put out for everyone, including the Deputy, to see how much it would cost to do A, B or C and the variety of different options. It explores what the Minister of the day can do if he or she receives a certain amount of funding. That is an attempt to have an honest discussion. It has enabled stakeholders, student bodies, access officers and others to feed into that discussion.
There is now downward pressure on registration fees, though. Last year was the first year that we saw fees reduced in any way for many years. The only time that fees used to get mentioned in this place for the last 20 odd years was when they were going up. The fees last year were effectively €2,000 for anybody doing a full-time undergraduate course. They have been permanently reduced by €500 for anyone with a household income of less than €100,000, and we have a budget in two weeks' time where we can see what more we can do in a variety of ways in supporting students.
Both of us speak to students regularly and we hear their concerns. So many students are telling me that they are either doing huge and long commutes trying to get into college, if they can, and that this is causing them huge stress. We saw that young woman on "The Tonight Show" this week who was explaining how she was travelling a long distance and the impact that was having with getting up at 5 a.m. and coming back late at night, while trying to keep her part-time job. So many students are not only struggling to get into college and all of that but then they also have to work long hours for their part-time jobs on minimum wage, trying to cover as much of their college costs as they can. They are also telling me about the real impact that is having on their mental health and about the fact there are not enough services around the universities for that.
So many young people are feeling left behind in this country and they do not see a future of being able to stay here. They want to contribute to this society but they need to be helped by Government to get through university, college or whatever course they want to do. They also need to see a future here where they can own their own homes or rent something at a decent price so that they can raise a family. That is something they are not seeing at the moment.
I fully accept that students and parents are in no way immune to the cost-of-living crisis. We are living through an inflationary crisis, the likes of which has not been seen since the 1970s, and that is having a real impact on people in making ends meet; there are no two ways about that. That is why we put in place a number of measures last year to help students, parents and families, and we will do similar this year in trying to come forward with measures. I am keen that any cost-of-living package that is in the budget in two weeks' time or so understands the challenges that students and their families are facing. That is why I worked hard to make sure that when the rent tax credit came in last year it was tweaked so that it is available to students. The rent tax credit has helped many students and their parents with the cost of rent, and if we can go further and do more then that is an avenue that is definitely worth exploring.
I am always conscious of people who watch these debates and who might get anxious about costs and stuff and I need to say that we live in a country where a little bit more than four out of ten students do not pay registration fees and access the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grant. The Deputy and I both want to grow that number. Let us see how we can look at things around income thresholds and the likes in the budget.
On the issue of digs, I know they are not ideal for everyone but there are 2,500 properties available out there and there are draft licence agreements out there. It is a better scenario for some people than the extraordinarily long commutes that they may be experiencing.
72. Deputy Marian Harkin asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science what measures he and his Department are putting in place to deal with the student accommodation crisis in Sligo, due to the withdrawal of two student accommodation blocks from the market. [40622/23]
Most of the Priority Questions this morning relate to the crisis in student accommodation. That is a strong indication that there has been a failure by Government to plan ahead. In Sligo, for example, we had two apartment blocks that for ten years housed students. Then they were allocated for Ukrainian refugees. That has been stopped for now but the owners have said that they are not for student use. That is a failure of co-ordination between two different Government Departments and it has left students scrambling for accommodation in Sligo.
It is not that; it is grubby behaviour that should be called out as exactly what it is. The Government could not be clearer; the student accommodation in Sligo will not be used for anything other than students as far as the State is concerned. I am beyond disappointed that despite that message being clearly conveyed, private student accommodation is sitting, to my understanding, largely idle. I am clear on the planning conditions attached to that and I hope everybody is clear on that because we have planning laws in this country and they need to be abided by. That is student accommodation and it needs to be used for students.
I will come back on other issues another time but I want to be clear; we worked hard and the Deputy worked hard with us to establish a technological university in the north-west, the Atlantic Technological University, ATU. It is going well but a core part of this is having access to student accommodation and making sure that people, not just from the region but from outside the region, including international students who come to ATU, have accommodation in Sligo, and I know that is a particular concern too. I have agreed a protocol with the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and everyone in this country wants to help with the humanitarian crisis. I am proud of how people have opened their homes, hearts, minds and communities to welcoming people from Ukraine but I am also clear that from a social cohesion point of view, student accommodation is for students; that is what it is needed for. We make it available outside of the time it is in use and when it is not needed but when it is needed it needs to be used for student accommodation. We have a clear protocol on that.
It is disappointing that despite so much work, the private market has still decided not to make this accommodation available to students. I hope people reflect on that and I appeal to their better nature to do that. This teaches me that we cannot be reliant on the private market. It is the best example of why we need to build our own accommodation and we have allocated, as the Deputy knows, €1 million to the technological universities to come up with plans for student accommodation. I can tell the Deputy with hand on heart that when ATU and others come forward with accommodation plans in 2024, the Government will be forthcoming in supporting and advancing this because this shows the vulnerability there is if you are entirely reliant on the private market.
I heard what the Minister said about "grubby behaviour". We will not have the debate now but it is my understanding that this is as much about a failure of co-ordination between Government Departments as anything else. As I said, we will not have the debate now but I will speak to the Minister about it again. I recognise that a lot of good work has been done by the students union and by the ATU itself in trying to get host families for students, and a colleague of mine, Councillor Marie Casserly, is helping to link up families and students. As the Minister said, we need to look at the longer term. The president of the ATU in Sligo has said that she welcomes the task force set up to look at ways that the ATU can borrow money to build its own purpose-built accommodation.
We need to see a real sense of urgency about this because we know all of this takes time. What we do not want this time next year, is for Deputy Harris as Minister, and maybe two years down the line some other Minister or perhaps even Deputy Harris, to still be answering questions about the lack of availability of student accommodation.
I take that point and I want to say one thing on the record of the House in the hope that it is helpful. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has confirmed to my Department that no contract has been entered into with the owners of the properties in Sligo, which were previously used as student accommodation, for the provision of emergency accommodation for the upcoming academic year. In addition, the Department has also confirmed that it has no plans to acquire this property into the future. I say that to be helpful to everybody locally.
I thank Dr. Orla Flynn, the president of ATU. She is working extraordinarily hard on this issue and also on that bigger issue of student accommodation. I want to be clear that we want to see Sligo and the ATU being able to develop student accommodation. We want to see it happen at pace and that is why we are doing a project called "standardised design". As we start to invest in and build new student accommodation across the country we should be making it much quicker to pull the design if it works in Sligo, and then it could also work in Tralee, Athlone and Carlow, and we should get on with it. In 2024 we can make real progress in student accommodation in the regions.
We also need to look at short-term solutions. We have spoken about the long-term situation with accommodation but we need proper co-ordination and extra bus routes to help get students to ATU Sligo. I am pleased to say that a new Local Link service from Ballymote started this week but we need more. We need to look at extra services within a radius of 40 km to 50 km from Sligo. Time and again I have spoken about the need for extra services from Rosses Point, which is only 7.5 km from Sligo town, and yet people cannot get buses into the town. We have a situation where Local Link is precluded from putting on a bus on the same route and at the same time as Bus Éireann, yet the demand for bus places has escalated. We need to look at the demand rather than rigid rules about who runs the service. In the short-term, even that piece of co-ordination could work well.
That is a sound suggestion and I will undertake to talk to the Minister for Transport on this. I am not suggesting that this is the case but there cannot be any bureaucratic reason why we cannot all pull together to try to come up with short-term solutions. Digs and the rent-a-room relief are one solution and the transport issue is an interesting one. There is also the idea of a devolved capital grant, which would involve giving the universities, particularly the technological universities, a degree of discretion if they have an ability to do something locally, maybe on their own campus, or with any other properties that can be changed. That is something I am looking at in the context of the budget as well.
I am happy to keep in touch with the Deputy and other Sligo Deputies, including my colleague, Deputy Feighan, on these matters. I know how difficult this has been for Sligo and in the time available to me I want to acknowledge, as the Deputy did, the positive role played the students union in Sligo, which finds itself in a very difficult position. Students want to support the humanitarian effort to assist refugees and they do not in any way, shape or form want to get caught up in a them-versus-us discussion that was completely uncalled for. I welcome the fact that we have the protocol now and that we have the clarity but it shows how we cannot just be reliant on the private market for student accommodation.
73. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will outline what measures he is taking to assist students (details supplied) attending colleges in Cork and Limerick, especially first-year students, in finding on-campus accommodation. [40913/23]
The Minister will appreciate that we, in Kerry, have serious problems with students finding accommodation in places like Limerick and Cork. What can he do and what will he do in the future? More importantly this year, what can be done for all these students who do not have a place in Limerick and Cork today?
I thank the Deputy for raising the question. The first thing he would agree with me is that all roads out of Kerry should not lead to Cork or Limerick when it comes to getting a university education. The first thing I have done is to ensure that Kerry is now a university county and that Tralee is now a university town. This is an important point because the Deputy's constituents in County Kerry can now access a university education in the Kingdom, in Kerry. They could not do it before and could not have done it a couple of years ago; it can now happen. Kerry now has its own university, MTU Tralee campus. I want to build student accommodation and I want to help expand that Tralee campus. Munster Technological University has that campus in Tralee and provides a university option in Kerry for the first time. I welcome the great work of MTU in expanding the courses it is providing with even more courses now in Kerry, including investment in a new science, technology, engineering and maths, STEM, building, for which I recently turned the sod and which is now under construction.
The Deputy is right that we need to provide more student accommodation. Students have the right and may have the need to go outside their own county to access a university. Support of €1 million is being provided to our technological universities to undertake a needs assessment for the provision of student accommodation. My Department is also examining mechanisms to ensure the technological universities can borrow to build student accommodation. I believe this will help MTU in Cork and Kerry to build student accommodation.
I assure the Deputy, as I said in the House today, we are now investing taxpayers' money in building student accommodation. He mentioned Limerick. In November I got Government approval for €61 million to press "Go" on 1,100 student accommodation units. These are units that had planning permission but had not been built and needed taxpayers' money to make them viable. That includes accommodation in Limerick. My Department is working very closely with the University of Limerick and University College Cork to identify and assess potential projects in Cork and Limerick.
I would say to the Deputy's constituents that as they go back to college this year, while accepting the challenges they have, there are 938 more college-owned student accommodation beds this year than last year, including 255 of them in UCC, which he referenced. Over 2,000 privately funded beds are due to be completed and available this autumn.
Of course, I welcome what has happened in Tralee. However, I am talking about students who do not have accommodation in Cork and Limerick today. For whatever reason their courses are in those colleges at this time. They are travelling by bus. They cannot drive themselves because they cannot get a driving test in Kerry - it is an impossibility. The leaving cert results come out too late. The CAO offers are too late. The second round of CAO offers is much too late. The lottery system only satisfies some. Some students come from as far away as Cahersiveen. It is an awful journey from Cahersiveen to Limerick or Cork. College days are supposed to be the best days of their lives. They are telling me that they are sleeping on couches and on floors. They are sleeping in tents. Some are even joining together to rent hotel rooms. Their rents have been increased by 50% after the first two weeks. This is not good enough.
I ask the Deputy to provide me with the details of his constituent who is sleeping in a tent in college because I would be interested to pursue that with the university. There should be no reason we cannot provide accommodation. We have the rent-a-room scheme with 2,500 beds throughout the country available for students to rent. I am not suggesting it is perfect and am certainly not suggesting it is easy, but people can do much better. We can do much better for students than the scenario the Deputy outlined there.
I take the valid point he made about the late leaving cert results and the late CAO offers in recent years have added to the sense of pressure. The Deputy will acknowledge that this year the leaving cert results were back to August, thank God, and the CAO offers were earlier than in previous years.
I will take up the issue he made about the availability of driving tests. I am sure that is placing enormous pressure on people. I will talk to the Minister for Transport on that.
The Deputy spoke about many people travelling by bus. He will know that in the last budget we extended the 50% price reduction on the young adult Leap card to ensure that people in third level education could benefit. I would like to see that maintained in the budget and built upon. However, this is all about building more student accommodation and I am fully committed to doing that.
First-year students find it the toughest. Second and third-year students may have accommodation sorted before the holidays. These students are in a scramble and are finding it very tough. Some students from Kilcummin and Killarney are trying to rent an hotel room. Their parents are trying to help them. They are finding it very difficult and the rent prices are being increased by the hotels, which is not fair. We have to do something for these people. While some of them are trying to travel even on the green bus from Killarney to Limerick, they are travelling for an hour and three quarters up and an hour and three quarters down. Lecturers say that not all the students are attending because they are worn out and are not able to make lectures at times. We have to do something to help these students. It is a reality and is happening today.
Talking about Tralee, that is next year and down the line. These students have courses in Limerick and Cork at present and are finding it very difficult. I ask the Minister to do something to provide access to accommodation for these people who have applied for on-campus accommodation and cannot get it.
I certainly do and am doing things for those students. The Tralee campus is not something for tomorrow or the future; it is there today. More students from Kerry and from across the country have applied to go to university in Kerry this year than last year; that is the point I am making. I certainly do not need to advocate to the Deputy about Kerry. The point he makes is right. We agree on bringing university education closer to people to reduce their commute times. I want to see more done in Kerry to provide education opportunities in that county in order that people do not need to travel further.
There will always be people who need to travel and who wish to go to universities across the country and that is absolutely their right. The Deputy mentioned Cork. In Cork there 255 more student accommodation beds in UCC this September than last September. That is a real addition. While it may not be enough, it is 255 more. I promise that in the budget we will try to take more measures to accelerate the building of student accommodation and to reduce the cost of people travelling to college. The rent-a-room tax relief will help people in Kerry because it reduces the amount people will need to pay in rent over the course of the college year. We should also build on that.
