My plan is to make sure we use some of the resources available to the country to pitch in to meet the cost of building it. I was clear when I took office that I did not think the student accommodation policy where it is either left to the market or to the universities’ volition to decide whether to build student accommodation was adequate to the scale of a challenge that society, students and their families face. That is why since last year to date, we have approved about €59 million of taxpayer funding towards student accommodation. It means we have been able to give the go-ahead to over 1,070 student accommodation beds that otherwise would not have happened. These were beds that had planning permission that had stalled due to inflation, market failure or whatever you want to call it. These are beds in DCU, the University of Limerick, UL, Maynooth and Galway. There are a number of other projects left. One is in the Deputy’s part of the world in UCC where there is planning permission for over 240 beds. There are some in UCD and some in Trinity. Trying to move those three on is my focus between now and the summer recess.
Alongside trying to invest more, I am also aware of the immediate issue. When you press go on a project now that does not mean that it will be ready for September. What we need to do now is make the rent-a-room scheme a more viable and sustainable part of the overall accommodation offering. The last figures available showed that over 9,000 people availed of the rent-a-room tax scheme. There is obviously a lot of interest in it. If it works it can work well. You could have a constituent with a spare room who would not mind a little bit of extra income and now, thanks to the decisions this Government is taking, they can take in someone, rent out the room, not pay tax on the income on that room up to €14,000 and keep any medical card and social welfare payments and not have it alter their student grant entitlements. It is making sure that people do not lose out on any access to State supports if they help. The Government will run a major public awareness campaign over the summer months to make homeowners aware of how they can avail of the rent-a-room scheme and to make students and others aware too.