Budget measures on third-level accommodation are a “drop in the ocean”, a student representative has said.
Budget 2025 included funding to resource a range of measures such as a continued €1,000 cut to the student contribution and increased support for the student assistance fund.
However, student representative Katie Halpin-Hill said the government had “failed” to address the key issue of the accommodation crisis.
She said the contribution fee should be abolished and that one-off measures need to be replaced with “meaningful action on a more sustainable long-term vision”.
In particular, she singled out accommodation as the largest barrier to third-level education and the most significant source of financial pressure for students.
The government also announced it would increase the renter’s tax credit to €1,000, which may cut bills for many students.
Ms Halpin-Hill, the student union president at University College Cork (UCC), said: “Of course the tax credit is welcome as it will put money back in students’ pockets but in terms of long-term measures to fix the accommodation crisis, it doesn’t go far enough.”
She added: “Once-off flashy measures such as the rent tax credit only serve to postpone investing in the root of the issue, and the overreliance of premium student accommodation providers to plug demand in the interim is putting students at risk.”
The Budget was delivered on Tuesday afternoon by the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure.
While the Budget’s Expenditure Report shows that the Department of Further Education has been allocated funding for student beds, Ms Halpin-Hill expressed disappointment that this had not been emphasised in the actual Dáil speeches by the ministers.
Given the student accommodation shortage nationwide, she said: “There was so much emphasis today in the speeches of ‘funding the future, supporting the future’ and when you look at that through the lens of third-level education, yes the core funding issue was addressed to a certain extent but when you look at long-term student supportive measures – particularly housing, which is the most significant barrier for students – there wasn’t really that much there and we were quite disappointed about that.”
Under the Budget, the department has been funded to “support the activation of more than 1,200 student accommodation beds” in regional campus locations.
It is progressing student accommodation projects at Maynooth University, Dublin City University (DCU) and University College Dublin (UCD) with delivery beginning from the New Year.
Ms Halpin-Hill, who studied history and Gaeilge at UCC, said: “It is a drop in the ocean. I mean, 1,200 student beds when you’re looking at a 30,000 national deficit doesn’t really go that far.”
The student representative also said there had been an overreliance on private providers which had increased market rates for everyone.
Separately, Ms Halpin-Hill also said free transport for third-level students should have been introduced, given that one in five UCC students are now commuting more than 10km to the university.
She added that she was disappointed that the minimum wage increase to €13.50 still did not reach the living wage of €14.75.
“And more specifically for students, there was no mention of the sub-minimum wage rates which was very disappointing for the 18-29-year-old students who have been impacted by that.”
