Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)

For clarity, I was talking about the Minister's predecessor when I was talking about the hullabaloo. There was a massive hullabaloo regarding something related to student accommodation that came before Cabinet but there was nothing new in it. It sometimes takes a while to see behind the big hullabaloo of an announcement but I recognise that did not happen on the Minister's watch. It was also not on the Minister's watch that not a red cent went into capital for student accommodation in last year's budget. I really hope to see that change this year. Obviously, we would like a date as soon as the Minister can provide it. This is something the USI has been asking about for a long time. When we see this new strategy, I really hope to see affordable student accommodation coming on stream in it because that is the crux of the issue. The reality is that much of the student accommodation out there at the moment is so expensive that people are locked out and unable to access it. That is the reality. We all know it. I am interested to hear more about the Minister's concept of contacting the local authorities to look at the beds for which planning permission has been given. I will be putting in a parliamentary question ASAP.

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