Student Accommodation
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-12
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

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.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-12