Another year, another student accommodation crisis. Versions of the same human stories are reported annually, detailing the hardships of finding accommodation or students missing lectures due to long commutes or even dropping out because the entire exercise is made so difficult.

What should be an exciting new beginning for young people around the country instead becomes a time of stress and frustration for many. Government failures are evident at almost every stage of leadership, policy and delivery.

[ Units for thousands of campus student beds unbuilt despite having planning permission ]

The National Student Accommodation Strategy was launched in July 2017 and included a projected increase of student numbers of 27 per cent by 2030. The strategy was rooted in making the case for the expansion of Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA).

It projected that by 2024, there would be 54,654 PBSA bed spaces. The projection for 2019 in that strategy was for 40,687 student beds.

Yet five years later, in June 2024, Niall Gargan, head of research for Ireland at real estate company JLL, told the Dublin Chamber of Commerce there were about 40,000 student beds registered with the Residential Tenancies Board.

In January 2024, a new strategy was flagged. That month, three ministers –

© The Irish Times