Student Accommodation
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-23
============================================================

James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

The activation of supply of student beds is of the utmost priority to me, my Department, the Government as a whole, to Deputy Kenny and I am sure to all in this House who take in an interest in the matter.
Since 2017, we have seen 16,266 purpose-built student accommodation beds completed nationwide, which brings the total stock to just under 50,000 around the country. At the end of March 2026, commencement notices issued in respect of 2,735 student beds, with a further 14,233 having planning permission but not yet been built out. In addition, planning permission has been applied for a further 1,684 beds that are coming through the system.
The projections contained within my student accommodation strategy, which I recently launched, indicate an emerging demand for approximately 42,000 additional student accommodation beds over the next decade, which underscores the scale of the challenge and opportunity. I should state that those 42,000 beds are not immediately required but they will be required as the decade progresses. However, there is undoubtedly a shortage of the beds that are required right now. It is not in the magnitude of that number but it is worth noting.
I am sure the Deputy has engaged with the new strategy which is published on the Government's website if people want to read it. It sets out a pathway to make higher education more accessible by promoting accommodation through addressing two critical challenges. The first is the affordability of accommodation by grant aid and additional supports to students to meet the costs of accommodation in lieu of commuting. The other challenge is around accommodation supply and viability and incentivising a greater rollout in the development of beds so that the 14,000 beds with planning permission that are not built out actually become activated. Affordability is delivered through a range of schemes, which I might speak about following the next supplementary question because I am watching the clock.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-23