On Friday, the government proudly announced that 6,691 student beds have been created in Ireland since 2016 as part of its National Student Accommodation Strategy.
What the government did not deign to mention, however, is that the vast majority of this accommodation is expensive enough to give the average student heart palpitations.
In Dublin, The University Times revealed this week, just seven per cent of purpose-built student accommodation advertises itself at prices lower than âŹ840 per month. Thatâs fewer than 385 beds out of 5,465.
On top of this, more than 95 per cent of Dublinâs student accommodation created since 2016 is owned by private companies undoubtedly more concerned with profit than providing students with suitable accommodation.
Perhaps the most disheartening thing about these revelations, though, was that precisely no-one was surprised by them. Building accommodation that is out of the price range of most students â and even many members of the workforce, as several young professionals pointed out on Twitter â is shameful, but has become the dispiriting norm.
Minister for Higher Education Mary Mitchell OâConnor, speaking about the success of the governmentâs strategy, was predictably tone deaf.
Mitchell OâConnor said the strategy was âdesigned to increase supply and so assist in moderating rental costs for studentsâ, and ebulliently declared that the government is âon track to exceed the target set at the outsetâ.
Allowing companies to build obscenely priced flats is not increasing supply for the average student and, as anyone in search of accommodation at the moment is aware, it is clearly not âmoderating rental costsâ.
And Mitchell OâConnor might want to consider the fact that the quality of Irelandâs higher education sector has not improved in line with its cost â a reality for which her government must shoulder most responsibility.
The governmentâs strategy is also entirely unsustainable, pricing as it does all but the most wealthy out of a sector widely acknowledged as crucial to the future success of Irelandâs economy.
Trying to paint the National Student Accommodation Strategy as a solution to the accommodation crisis is an insult. Students need affordable accommodation â not âstudio apartmentsâ with prices north of âŹ1,200 per month.
