Students are 'far from done ' with accommodation protests
Students in Cork will stage further protests in their fight for affordable accommodation amidst reports of some being forced to sleep on couches and in cars.
Less than two months into a new college term, the same old problems are wreaking havoc amongst students on Leeside who are struggling to afford rent, travel, and basic necessities.
One month ago, students at MTU’s Bishopstown Campus held a walkout protest calling on the Government to take immediate action on the numerous crises facing third-level students today under the tagline, ‘Fund Our Future’.
The protest was followed by a lobby day in Dublin where student union representatives from MTU Cork and UCC joined Cork senators and TDs to raise a number of key issues, including the abolition of the student contribution charge, more investment into publicly funded student accommodation, and the closing of the core funding gap.
Although conversations were positive at the lobby, the subsequent announcement of Budget 2027 has left students frustrated and disillusioned. Attending the lobby was MTU Cork Student Union President Cian McGrath, who said he’s not “massively happy” with Budget 2027, despite a reduction of €150 to the Student Contribution Fee.
Mr McGrath noted that the only real element in the Budget relating to student accommodation was an increase from €14,000 to €16,000 to the tax-free income ceiling for the Rent-a-Room Relief scheme.
“All that's going to do is make accommodation more expensive for students, which I'm not thrilled about,” he said.
“There's been some progress made by MTU and other TUs to be allowed to borrow money to acquire land to build accommodation on, but then that's another thing - that's another a couple of years away,” he added.
Students are concerned that, with the €14,000 ceiling having previously allowed homeowners to remain tax-exempt, the increase to €16,000 makes them subject to tax and may serve as an invitation for homeowners to increase rent rates.
Accommodation issues
In the meantime, student unions in Cork continue to try to help wave after wave of despairing students, with accommodation being the number one issue.
Mr McGrath said: “I've heard myself, personally, of a few students that have had ended up sleeping in their cars and crashing on couches.
“The availability of the accommodation is a big problem.”
According to the most recent available figures from the Higher Education Authority (HEA), Cork currently sits rock bottom of the table nationally when it comes to public ownership of purpose-built student accommodation with just 16%. The next lowest are Galway with 36% and Dublin with 40%.
Further protests
Student unions in Cork have been working with the National Students Union (USI) and further protests are a certainty, said Mr McGrath. “We're far from done with the protesting,” he said.
“Ireland is great at showing off how great our graduates are, but then they graduate and there's nothing here for them. There's so many people that I've known that have graduated top of their class and they're now off in Australia or Canada. “It's a worthwhile investment to invest in the third-level sector.
“We just want adequate funding for students to not have to go hungry and to be able to have a place to stay and to be able to commute to college. We want results for the students that are here now, but we also want results for the students that are going to be there in the future.
“It's just been the same thing over and over again every September and it seems to be getting worse rather than getting better,” he said.