Student Accommodation
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-11
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Carol Nolan (IND), Offaly

I thank the Minister for his response. While I certainly acknowledge that there have been some incentives, supports and improvements, the SUSI grant has unfortunately not been adjusted in line with the cost of living or the costs of student accommodation. We have seen over the past five years how rents in urban centres and many regional towns have risen at rates far exceeding inflation or wage growth.
In regard to the strategy, the delivery of purpose-built student accommodation has fallen substantially short of what is actually required, with only approximately 14,000 of the 21,000 beds targeted under the national student accommodation strategy having materialised by 2024. As a direct consequence, thousands of students now rely on temporary and often unsuitable arrangements such as staying in family homes, commuting long distances as the Minister acknowledged, or depending on the good will of relatives and friends. We really need to tackle this issue and be more ambitious in creating more student accommodation.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-11