Govt to provide €100m for over 1,000 new on-campus beds

The Government will provide €100m for the creation of more than 1,000 on-campus bed spaces for students.

Three universities are involved, with construction set to begin this year in Dublin City University and Maynooth University.

Planning approval has just been granted for 500 bed spaces in University College Dublin, with construction there anticipated to begin next year.

Taoiseach Simon Harris said: “This is an area that I had to prioritise in my previous role [as Minister for Further and Higher Education].

“We hadn’t been directly investing as a state in building purpose-built student accommodation, college owned accommodation, ever. And as a result of that we would be overly reliant on the private market.”

He added: “But secondly, we also had a scenario where students are having to compete with families and young professionals and others trying to … rent homes and we’ve already gotten a number of projects underway.”

Minister for Further and Higher Education Patrick O’Donovan said he was delighted with the progress and that he would hopefully build on it.

“Obviously, we’d be hoping as we now go into the summer economic statement and the Budget and beyond looking at capital investment for our third level and university sector, and this will be something that we’ll be able to continue to work on.”

Asked about whether the newly built accommodation would be affordable, Mr Harris said that 30% of the beds would be below market value.

“If we’re funding 30% of a project, at least 30% of the beds have to be below market value,” he said.