Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 February 2023
55. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to provide an update on student accommodation projects at advanced stages of planning that remain undeveloped due to a lack of agreement on Government support; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6963/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraCan the Minister provide an update on the student accommodation projects at advanced stages of planning that remain undeveloped due to the lack of agreement on Government support? Will the Minister explain to us the situation regarding the students who are excluded from the rent tax credit? The Taoiseach was unable to do so earlier today. I want to be clear for once and for all what students are included in the scheme and why others are excluded. People need clarity. We cannot get the answers from Revenue.
I am happy to come back on that issue and engage with the Deputy. There needs to be absolute clarity on that. I want to deal with the student accommodation question first.
I am actively aware of and working to address the difficulties faced by students. While I understand the Deputy's question refers to a lack of agreement on Government support, I have to make the point that this is the first time in the history of the State that the Government has intervened directly, for better or worse, to part fund, with taxpayers' money, the building of student accommodation.
Fundamentally, the challenge of student accommodation is one of housing supply more generally. Obviously, the outbreak of war in Ukraine has compounded the impact of Brexit, Covid-19 and the cost of construction. We are all familiar with these things. The higher cost of finance has also contributed significantly to the overall cost of new projects. A number of higher education institutions had to pause their student accommodation projects as a result of these challenges.
To assist in restarting the projects, on 29 November 2022 I secured Government approval to develop short and medium-term policy responses to activate a supply of affordable student accommodation. These landmark policies will, for the first time, see the State providing financial support for the construction of student accommodation. They will ensure the increased availability of and promote greater access to student accommodation.
The short-term focus is on projects where planning permission is in place and designs are at an advanced stage. The Government has approved funding support to develop accommodation for students of the University of Limerick, Maynooth University and the University of Galway. These projects were not undeveloped due to a lack of agreement on Government support; rather my proposal now enables these universities to reactivate the projects that were stalled. Those projects have been approved by the Government and we need to get on with it.
My Department is also working with the Office of the Attorney General to address EU state aid requirements. As the Deputy will know, two other universities, namely, Dublin City University, DCU, and University College Dublin, UCD, had advice planning permissions and their projects have been paused. I have had two meetings with each university in the course of the last month and I expect to be able to update the Government on how I believe we can move forward on this project shortly. I am pleased to tell the Deputy that Trinity College Dublin, TCD, recently received planning approval for an accommodation project and we are now engaging with the university. I am engaging with six universities. Three of the projects are over the line in terms of funding as of November, namely, DCU, UCD and TCD. In parallel, we have allocated €1 million to the technological universities to come up with their plans.
I thank the Minister. It is vitally important that these projects are progressed sooner rather than later. The Minister knows I have pushed for a long time for public funding for student accommodation because it is integral to students participating in third level education, in particular students from rural areas.
How is the Minister making sure that the beds will be affordable once they are available? We need to make sure that it is just that a number are ring-fenced for SUSI students or whoever; they should all be affordable. That needs to be the bottom line when money is invested.
My colleague has a question on the rent tax credit. The current situation is not good enough. The requirement for landlords to be registered with the residential tenancies board, RTB, excludes many students. Students are being punished because their landlords are not registered with the RTB. We need to tease that out in another question.
The rent-a-room scheme is included in the rent credit.
It is included.
On-campus college accommodation is included and everybody else needs to be registered with the RTB.
That has always been my understanding. I am happy to clarify that and work through that with the Deputy. That was certainly my understanding but I am very happy to seek clarity that my understanding is correct but that has always been my understanding concerning the rent-a-room scheme.
Landlords need to be registered with the RTB for very good reasons, including the protection of tenants. An issue raised with me by USI and others is the importance of RTB registration. I will clarify that for the Deputy. I am happy to do that because it is not within my Department's remit.
The Deputy and I support public investment in getting these projects moving. Whatever funding we are investing, we expect that level of funding back in terms of the percentage of rooms that will charge below market rates. We are doing this to ensure we are in compliance with EU state aid rules but also to ensure that if the State invests €1, it makes sure these things are below market rent.
Affordability is crucial. As this is the first time there has been public investment in student accommodation, we must get it right from the beginning to meet the affordability criteria. There is no point in having student accommodation or any type of accommodation if it is beyond the reach of ordinary people so we must get it right.
I wanted to get clarity because this is not what has been coming from Revenue. Anyone renting under the rent-a-room scheme, whose tenancies are obviously not registered with the RTB, will get a rent tax credit. I am really glad the Minister has cleared that up. There are a few other exclusions we will talk about later.
In the interests of accuracy, the rent tax credit scheme is run by the Department of Finance so I am offering information to be helpful as I know it to the House as opposed to being accountable to the House for the administration of the rent tax credit scheme, which is done by the Revenue Commissioners.
I agree with the Deputy about affordability but I also think there is a real focus on the issue of supply. We know that even at current rates, on-campus accommodation is over-subscribed. From memory, for every one bed that was rented in Maynooth on campus, there were five or six students who would have rented the bed so I see it as a twin-track issue. It is about supply because, and I am not saying it is easy, there are students renting existing accommodation on campus so we need more supply but we also need to make sure that affordability is to the forefront, particularly in any public investment.
