The news that nearly 200 students have been delayed moving into new student accommodation in Dublin city because of “supply chain issues” is symptomatic of the broader crisis facing students going to college this autumn. In Ireland’s broken housing system, those students awaiting their purpose-built rooms are among the lucky ones; they are at least assured they will have somewhere to live in the coming weeks.
For very many others, the stressful hunt continues. That’s because a combination of longer-term trends – a rise in student numbers and a low supply of dedicated campus accommodation – and more immediate ones, such as the national housing crisis, the rocketing cost of living and the war in Ukraine, have dramatically reduced the stock of good, affordable places to live for the college year. Long, snaking queues outside open-view rental properties are a common sight.
It is only five years since the previous government published a national student accommodation strategy. Its focus was on the development of purpose-built units, but the stock of private sector housing that followed – much of it high-end hotel-style buildings – carried higher rents than most students could afford. Meanwhile, third-level institutions say the rising costs of construction have compromised their plans for more affordable on-campus units. The Government is encouraging people to avail of the rent-a-room scheme, under which homeowners can earn up to €14,000 tax-free. That’s fine, but such a measure ought to be just a small part of a comprehensive policy response to a chronic problem.
Going to college should be an exciting time in anyone’s life. But the housing crisis is profoundly changing that experience, forcing many students to commute long distances, to sleep on couches or even, in some cases reported by student organisations, to sleep rough. Coming after a two-year hiatus in normal college life due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the effect is deeply damaging. And ultimately it will mean that access to education is further confined to those who can afford to pay for it.