Need for more student housing highlighted

While the €100M government investment in new student accommodation - including 1,014 beds for UCD and DCU - is “welcome”, Sinn Féin councillor Damien Brady insists that much more needs to be done to provide affordable housing for third-level students across the rest of the country.

Speaking at the October meeting of Cavan County Council, Cllr Brady welcomed a response to a motion he tabled in July, which highlighted the growing financial burden on families sending children to college. At the time, he shared that students are working up to 30 hours a week, while also studying full-time, just to make ends meet.

He also compared the cost of sending a child to college to taking on a “second mortgage” and highlighted the challenges his own family faced trying to secure accommodation in an “unregulated” rental sector for his own daughters.

Responding to the letter from the office of the Minister for Housing, Cllr Brady acknowledged the progress made, such as construction starting on a 116-bed project at Maynooth University, UCD’s 493-bed project going to tender in 2025, and DCU’s 405-bed project currently in the tender process.

However, he warned these developments still won’t “scratch the surface” of wider nationwide demand and criticised the fact that only 1,200 of the new beds will be classed as affordable for targeted student groups across the rest of the country, calling it “not good enough”.