Reviving ‘digs’ tradition could ease student rent crisis
She encouraged people living alone to consider taking in students from around the country who are moving to Dublin and facing into a situation where an accommodation shortage has caused rents to rise sharply. The big race for accommodation began this week after almost 51,000 people were offered places in 44 colleges through the Central Applications Office. By late afternoon yesterday, more than 28,000 offers had been accepted, but many returning college students will have secured their places for the coming year well before this month.
Ms O’Sullivan said students would give elderly people company and more security, as well as another source of income.
She said: “We have a clear strategy for the amount of construction which will happen. I hope in the medium term, the crisis will stabilise. For now, it is an issue for students and other people as well. I would like to see the colleges do everything they can to provide accommodation. Some of them do a lot of it and provide a lot of on- campus and off-campus accommodation.”
She said UCD students unions had got together with local people to identify people living alone in a three-bedroom house and they had made arrangements for the residents to meet particular students who might be suitable to live with them.
“It seems to be working fairly well. I would encourage anybody with spare accommodation in their house and [who] are either near a higher education institution or... on an appropriate public transport route, that they might consider accommodating students,” said Ms O’Sullivan.
She said it can work well for both students and the home owner.
She said the Government’s construction plan would deal with the shortage in the medium and long term.
“But it won’t address it this year, as it takes a certain amount of time to build a house or an apartment,” she said. “But we have a clear strategy in terms of the amount of construction that will happen. For now, it is an issue for students and other people as well,”
She also took the opportunity to salute Donogh O’Malley as the Education Minister who she believes will be remembered the most, as she set out her goals and ambitions.
The Fianna Fáil minister was the last Limerick politician appointed minister for education and the minister who did away with fees in secondary schools.
Ms O’Sullivan said: “I benefited very much from Donogh O’Malley’s decisions, as I was in secondary school when he was minister. In fact, I remember his funeral very well.
“I was in secondary school in 1968 when he died and the sixth-year students from the secondary schools in the city lined the route of the cortège. I would have benefited from the measures he took, abolishing fees in secondary schools, and also he introduced higher education grants and I was able to qualify for a grant as well. He made an extraordinary impact. I think, of all the ministers for education, he is the one whose impact will be remembered most.”
She said the area where she hoped to make a difference was in education disadvantage. She also said she wanted to get students at second level more involved in the decision-making process on policy changes and to get their voice heard more.
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