Students' unions are quite clear that the provision of more on-campus accommodation is vital. But exactly who provides the finance - Government or private investors? It was UL's secretary, John O'Connor, who first identified section 23 of the Finance Act as a means of financing student accommodation. Section 23 allowed tax relief on housing investments in order to encourage the building of new houses. It has been used extensively to finance holiday homes, but has since been abolished.

UL now offers campus accommodation for 960 - enough for a little over 10 per cent of its student population. O'Connor says that in the future UL hopes to increase its accommodation to enable 40 per cent of students to live on campus. For most students, living on campus is the ideal. Students save considerable travel time and money and are able to participate in university life to the full. A further advantage is that conflict between student lifestyles and local residents is kept to a minimum. O'Connor argues that we shouldn't expect the Government to finance student housing, but he would like to see the reintroduction of tax breaks. "It would make it much easier to build student accommodation," he stresses. "It doesn't have to be the universities which do the building - it could be done by private developers - as long as it meets the study and social requirements of students."

Until recently DCU believed that the college had reached saturation point in terms of student accommodation (560 places for around 5,000 students). This year though, campus accommodation at £46 per week is a bargain. "We've had to turn away about 300 people who want to live on campus," says college secretary Martin Conry. DCU's housing doubles as tourist accommodation during the summer. "We couldn't survive on 36 weeks occupancy," explains Conry.

Increasing the amount of DCU accommodation could cause difficulties. "To make it viable we have to achieve 80 per cent occupancy during the summer. We would be unable to make extra accommodation pay if there was a downturn in the tourist market."

However, "if there were new tax breaks for campus accommodation we would be keen to look at the issue again," he says.