Last week, I met representatives from the Union of Students in Ireland at an open day. I was surprised that most of the students were the first members of their families to attend college. Their main concern is accommodation. The shortage of accommodation is forcing students to compete with families and professionals for accommodation. The problem is that students have no choice but to go for the accommodation. Their first preference would be purpose-built accommodation. At present, only universities get grants; the institutes of technology do not. If we can release these students from looking for private accommodation it would help. What is the proposal going forward to help deal with student accommodation?

I thank the Deputy for the question. Obviously, it is a fantastic opportunity for those students. Education can only open more doors for them in terms of the opportunities they might have in future. We have an ambitious programme involving my Department and that of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, and being led by the Ministers of State, Deputies English and Mitchell O'Connor, to dramatically increase the amount of student accommodation being built. We are aiming for somewhere between 10,000 to 12,000 new student spaces to be provided over the next three years. Already in the course of the past year and a half we have seen almost 2,000 new bed spaces created. Supply is the answer to student accommodation but it is important to note we also have rent a room relief for students whereby a family can let out a room in their home to a student for the year and they can charge up to €14,000 tax free.