2026-05-12

157. Deputy Eoghan Kenny asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the engagement he has had with University College Cork and Munster Technological University Cork on the housing crisis and the impact on student accommodation in Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34346/26]

I wish to ask about the Minister's engagement with University College Cork and the Munster Technological University in Cork on the housing crisis and the impact on student accommodation in Cork. This is something that has been spoken about at a consistent level by the Labour Party and by me and my colleagues, Senator Harmon, and an Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, Deputy Sheehan.

I am aware of the Deputy's interest in this. I am pleased to be able to advise the Deputy that I have met the presidents of both UCC and MTU on a number of occasions. I have also visited both institutions on a number of occasions and, indeed, I will do so again this week. I am very aware of how the supply and affordability of accommodation is impacting students in Cork and more generally across the country. That is one of the reasons I was very pleased to be able to publish the national student accommodation strategy, which sets out the pathway to make higher education more accessible by addressing two critical challenges. There are two pillars of that strategy, as the Deputy is probably aware. One is the viability challenge and incentivising the development at scale of student accommodation and large, high-quality student developments, ideally on campus lands or in and around campus. This will be supported through the strategy and through a number of measures within it. There is also a focus on affordability, with €176 million in new supports being placed in things like the maintenance grants for non-adjacent students and a range of other measures to make it somewhat more affordable for students to be able to pay their rents, effectively, in the different developments. Of course, both MTU and UCC have been engaged in that with me and my officials. My Department held a briefing for both universities very recently to walk through the new student strategy and explain how that is going to work. Part of that is the extension of what was a TU, accommodation programme across the traditional universities and what we are calling the higher education institutions student accommodation programme, HSAP. That has been up and running now since we launched the strategy. I am pleased to advise the Deputy that there are three locations being targeted in the first wave, namely, Dublin, Galway and Cork. Cork is up and running already. We have had extensive engagement and we have had a number of inquiries coming in already. That is going well. It is something I am keen to move on at all possible expedition to ensure we begin to deliver those much-needed beds for the students.

I appreciate that there have been developments in student accommodation. However, Cork, as a county with a huge university city, has the lowest proportion of public student accommodation beds available at 18%. In February 2026, a report by Sherry FitzGerald showed that the State needs at least 38,900 beds to keep up with the demand. The report says that for every 13 students across the south-west region, which is inclusive of Cork and Kerry, there are ten beds, and that with roughly 30,300 students enrolled, there is a shortfall of approximately 9,900 beds. This report assumed that those living in their own counties do not avail of accommodation. We are taking that assumption that people from towns such as my own, Mallow, do not move up to Cork city, if they are attending UCC or the Munster Technological University, MTU, or any other further or higher education facility. The significant shortfall is there. It is probably due to a lack of forward planning for many decades, within the former Department of Education more so that the newly formed Department of further and higher education. I understand that there has been progress but significant progress has to be made in Cork.

I totally agree with the Deputy. We need to see significant progress and we need to see it soon. On the theme of progress, we saw 206 beds with a commencement notice issued only last month in Cork. There are 3,000 around the country since I launched the strategy approximately six weeks ago. Approximately 206 of those are in Cork, and they are badly needed. There are another 1,700 beds in Cork with planning granted which I hope will become viable through the strategy. There were a number of beds at sites around the country where planning was granted but where inquiries took place at the stage of planning. They were not progressing for various reasons. The strategy, as the Deputy knows, includes a number of viability levers to assist with that and move those on to construction and move those forward. Additionally, there is planning permission in the system in Cork working its way through for another 500 beds already. Those are positive numbers to consider. That will provide an additional 2,200 beds when those come on stream. I expect there will be many more coming behind that with the new sites that are being identified. In addition to that, I should point to the beds available under the rent-a-room scheme - 926 beds for MTU Cork and 72 beds being offered at UCC at the moment.

In relation to what my colleague, Senator Harmon, has said in relation to the technological universities being allowed to borrow to build student accommodation, is it something that the Minister and the Department are taking seriously? There would be an appetite there from MTU. In relation to private rented accommodation, we have had many debates across this House on private rental student accommodation, particularly in Cork city where a lot of the time, in a lot of the situations I have come across, the accommodation has been completely unsatisfactory. It is due to the fact that we have students in our county who are going to our colleges or further and higher education institutes and have been forced to go into these private rented accommodation settings because of the lack of publicly available student accommodation beds. While I appreciate that progress is being made on it, we have to move this on as quickly as possible. Will the Minister give an assurance to the House that technological universities, such as MTU, could borrow to build?

I am conscious of this and I have met all the technological universities, TUs, on it. It is a programme for Government commitment and it is one I have given effect to through the student accommodation strategy because the strategy includes provision for nomination agreements. Nomination agreements are technical arrangements, but they allow the technological university to take on a contingent liability upon its balance sheet which could be construed as a State liability. It is something that we are supporting through the student accommodation agreement. That has involved work with not only my Department but also the Departments of Finance and public expenditure. Those discussions have been ongoing with both Ministers. We have managed to secure within the accommodation strategy provision to do exactly that. That allows the technological universities to enter into agreements with providers to book out large blocks of beds in a long-term fashion in a way that commits them to expenditure in the long term that is a form of borrowing, but one that is done with full State support. That was an important measure that was called for. It is one I was keen to ensure was included in the strategy, which it is.