Student Accommodation
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-11
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

I am glad the Deputy mentioned the rent a room scheme because that is an important tax relief that is available. Householders can earn up to €14,000 per year tax free by renting rooms to students. It has also been extended to local authority tenants, and at the end of last month, over 5,200 rent a room student beds were on offer in higher education institutions across the country, so that is a very significant measure.
In regard to the stock that is on hand, the Deputy mentioned the level of delivery in her opening question. One issue that is of concern to me is that there are almost 15,000 student beds that have planning permission but have not actually moved to construction. We need to look at the reasons that might be the case. A lot of that comes from viability. I refer to things like the VAT reduction on new apartment building. We will look at the procurement supports that are there and measures we can use to stimulate. Where appropriate, there is funding in the system to make serviced sites available where colleges have sites. They can be encouraged to put them to use for student accommodation to try to get some of those 15,000 beds, and a lot more, unlocked and progressed.

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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