Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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56. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when his Department’s new student accommodation strategy will be published. [26568/24]

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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65. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills for an update on the national student accommodation policy, which is now overdue by a full year; if funding it is a priority for his Department in budget 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26546/24]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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72. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if there is sufficient supply of student accommodation for third-level students for the 2024-2025 academic year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26494/24]

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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This issue is raised with me by students' unions quite a bit. They are wondering when the student accommodation strategy will be published. I understand they have been waiting for some time for this. It would be great to have sight of it and a date for when it will be published.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 56, 65 and 72 together.

The first national student accommodation strategy was launched in July 2017. It runs until 2024. The officials in the Department and I are developing a new strategy for student accommodation, which will be published this year. The strategy will align with the long-term student accommodation policy and methodology, which were approved by the Government in January.

The aim of the policy is to increase the supply of student accommodation and to examine alternative solutions that will remove accommodation as a barrier to higher education through increasing the supply of student accommodation and relieving pressure on the private rental sector; supporting balanced regional development and the technological university, TU, transformation agenda, and proposals for accommodation projects from the TUs are currently under assessment; enabling supply of new below-market rate accommodation for target cohorts; reducing cost of delivery of new purpose-built student accommodation through development of standardised design options for purpose-built student accommodation; promoting efficient use of existing building stock; examining commuting alternatives to accommodation close to campus; and continued support of the rent-a-room scheme, which Deputies call digs.

Engagement with a range of stakeholders has informed development of the approach and will continue as plans progress. The short-term activation programme has been progressing. It is currently supporting the development of circa 1,000 student beds with €100 million in funding, as I said, approved by the Government in quarter 1 of 2024. This short-term approach has been necessary in the context of the overall challenges faced and the inability of higher education institutions to progress developments with planning permission due to cost viability issues.

I will respond to some of the other issues raised by the Deputy as well.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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What the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, wants at this stage is a date. The Minister mentioned it would be at some stage in 2024. I appreciate he is new in the role but this is something that was due to be published this year. When will it be published?

The Minister mentioned the student accommodation policy. I remember when it was launched. There was a massive hullabaloo about it. It was seen as this great thing, but when you actually looked at it, it was simply existing policy rehashed. There was a huge hullabaloo about the refurbishment grant that, on closer inspection and from contacting all the universities, apparently could not be used by anyone. I have not heard much talk about that grant since. We have seen that the technological universities still seem to be in some kind of limbo with regard to whether they can borrow to invest in student accommodation. I appreciate we will discuss that later.

There is clearly a lot of work to be done. I appreciate the Minister is new in the role. I am taking it on face value that he wants to get work done on this, but when will we see this strategy? Can we get a date for when it will be published? As I said, students are asking about this and waiting for this.

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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Will I get to come in a second time on grouped questions or is it just once?

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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The Deputy will get to come in twice.

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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Perfect. I also met with representatives from the USI. They have given us a number of briefings over the past two years or so. They pointed to the fact they have waited three years for the publication of the national student accommodation strategy. I also appreciate the Minister is new in the role, but I point to the fact this issue is damaging relationships between students and the Government. The union had to debate whether to attend a cost-of-education event organised by the Department of higher education because, in its representatives' words, they are sick of being invited to meetings and events, saying what students need, and then seeing no real change or action. That is a huge concern to me.

In a parliamentary response in February, I was told the Higher Education Authority, HEA, is to undertake a feasibility study for regional areas, including Clare. Is there any update on where we are with that?

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I do not have a date. As soon as I have it, I will bring it to the attention of Deputies. I recognise this is an important issue, as does everybody on all sides of the House. That is why the Government has put the money it has into the sector for the universities I identified. It is the same reason, in last year's budget, we made substantial changes to the tax code in respect of the rent-a-room or digs scheme.

I will come to that later when replying to other questions. That has been very successful across the technological universities sector and the other higher education institutes. It has proven to provide much-needed accommodation. To be quite honest, there is more that can be done in that space. I look forward to discussing that with the new Minister for Finance, Deputy Chambers, when he gets up and running in the context of the summer economic statement and the upcoming budget.

I take it that Deputy Farrell's comment was tongue-in-cheek and I will not take it personally but it is not a hullabaloo; I take this issue very seriously.

On purpose-built accommodation for the technological universities and the older universities, a tender is currently out with regard to standardised design. From my previous role with the Office of Public Works, I know that things are made an awful lot cheaper when we have a set of standardised designs that we can present to the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform before deciding on the funding model, whether public private partnership or direct Exchequer funding.

I am also conscious that some universities have significant own resources. On top of that, I am also conscious that some have private sector involvement and that this private sector involvement has shrunk in many cases. They have planning permission for student accommodation but that student accommodation may not be being realised in the private sector. There is work to do with the local authorities. I am going to engage with them to determine how many beds in the private sector have been granted permission but are not being advanced in the local authority areas. They are outside of the reach of the Department but they may not be outside of the reach of the local authorities. That is something I am anxious to get involved in.

I will come back to some of the other issues. I presume the specific issue Deputy Wynne raised is in the Shannon area. I am familiar with the area. It is very proximate to Limerick. As I pointed out to Deputy Farrell a while ago, changes have been made to the tax people pay, whether pensioners, people with earned income, people living alone or people who would like to have a student living with them as a result of lifestyle changes. The Minister, Deputy McGrath, made substantial changes in the last budget. These have been very successful. Obviously, we are trying to make further improvements.

We are also making sure that this is considered when councillors are adopting city and county development plans. I know that can also be contentious. We all know that accommodation is objected to in many cases. In some cases, it is vehemently objected to not only by locals, but by local authority representatives. I am conscious of that as well. It is adding to the problem. We welcome all suggestions from any side of the House with regard to this issue.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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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.

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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I also welcome the Minister's earlier announcement in respect of legislation to ensure that students are not locked into 51-week leases. I also commend the USI on its serious campaigning on the matter. I was hoping to get a bit of clarification as to whether that will include digs accommodation. The USI's 2023 student digs survey included stark findings. Only 11% of students reported having access to a bathroom, fridge, iron, living room, oven, stove, television, washing machine and dryer. Some 59% lived in digs only because of the lack of alternatives and 57% of those students said that they would move out of digs if they could. Students availing of digs should not be left vulnerable without legal rights or safeguards and students can see themselves on the streets without notice. It is obviously a very serious concern overall.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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To follow on from the previous two speakers, there is a crisis in Cork regarding student accommodation and the affordability of such accommodation. That is why it is so important that the strategy is now delivered. I know the Minister is not long in the job but surely his predecessor had advanced this. It should be at a certain stage now. When will we have sight of it? It is a very important strategy that needs to be delivered on. The Minister made a point about what was done in Spain. Students are now fighting with ordinary non-student people who are trying to rent accommodation. One is pitted against the other. Something needs to be done. It is all about delivery. Parents are now under savage pressure to come up with funds to get student accommodation for their children because prices are so high. I know the Minister is new in the job but he has been in government for more than four and a half years. We should have a strategy by now.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Can it be determined where the requirement for student accommodation is most acute? I am only seeking rough figures. To what extent, if any, are planning permissions already indicated likely to meet that requirement?

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I will deal with the questions in reverse order. I will come back to Deputy Durkan directly once we have had a chance to engage with all of the local authorities with respect to unused planning permissions in the private sector.

On digs accommodation, the census carried out before the end of May showed that, in Cork, there were more than 400 available rooms in digs accommodation out of a total of 2,221.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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How much were they?

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I am sorry; I did not interrupt Deputy Gould.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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How much were they?

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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If the Deputy asks a question, he should at least give me an opportunity to answer it. I did not interrupt him. As somebody who stayed in digs in Cork myself, in Hartlands Avenue, a number of years ago, I know that these are private family homes into which people bring students. We have to be very conscious that they are private homes. The vast majority who have stayed in them would attest to the fact that, in a family environment like that, they are well looked after and get very good accommodation.

To go back to what I said earlier in response to Deputy Farrell, in conjunction with myself, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has brought forward a memorandum on 51-week and 40-week leases. I know some of the Deputies were missing for that. I acknowledge Deputy Wynne's contribution in that regard. That will be very important because it will remove 12 weeks of rent that families have to pay. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is the lead Minister for the legislation and will be bringing it forward as soon as possible. Obviously, there will be short time for engagement if we are to have it passed before the Dáil and the Seanad rise. I hope that Deputies will look at that as an opportunity to address this exact issue and to make sure that there are not situations where students are being asked to pay for months when they are not in the accommodation and to instead only pay for the 40 weeks they are supposed to be there.

I will reply to Deputy Durkan afterwards on the specific issues he has raised.