Student Accommodation and Supports: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-26
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Sarah O'Reilly (AON), Agricultural Panel

The Minister is very welcome and I am delighted to be here to be able to speak. I thank the Acting Chair for sharing out the time. College is about deepening our education but it is also a rite of passage. It is where young people fly the nest and start to get their independence. They learn to manage their budget for themselves and it is when they realise their washing does not magically get clean.
The Government's student accommodation strategy at least acknowledges the scale of the problem, and that is good. It estimates that we have a requirement for 42,000 additional student beds by 2035 but is unclear how this will actually happen. What is the strategy to increase construction? I think Senator Rabbitte touched on that. Is it just the increased capacity for colleges to access finances or is there more? I am not clear on that.
There needs to be far greater responsibility placed on higher education institutions themselves. If colleges are increasing student numbers, then accommodation capacity must form part of the expansion plan. There was a 10% increase in international students in the 2024-25 academic year. We cannot continue to recruit students into courses without any realistic plan for where they will live. Students are travelling four hours a day because they cannot find accommodation. Others are couch surfing, living in overcrowded houses or spending most of their grant on rent before they even buy a book or eat a meal.
I am also uneasy about proposals from the Minister that would reduce time physically spent on campus. The social side of college matters enormously, especially at a time when loneliness, anxiety and mental health difficulties among young people are increasing. The strategy, as it stands, may deliver some additional accommodation but it will undoubtedly lead to the same cost for students and the current astronomical rents we have come to normalise.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-26