Overview

• Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn told an Oireachtas committee the accommodation shortage has become the single greatest barrier to accessing and completing higher education.
• Students reported extreme commutes, including cases of flying from Donegal to Dublin for lectures, as well as reliance on couch surfing, hostels and unregulated digs.
• International students were highlighted as especially vulnerable, with 18 found living in a two-bedroom house in County Limerick.
• At DCU’s Glasnevin campus, a rise in mandatory service charges from €87 to €130 pushed total monthly payments up by nearly 7%, a change reported to sit outside rent-pressure zone caps.
• Minister James Lawless said he will write to DCU seeking a reversal of the service-charge increase and is pursuing a larger student support package in ongoing Budget talks, as the national accommodation strategy faces further delay and thousands of approved on-campus beds remain unbuilt.