‘It’s impossible to study this way’: students protest in Dublin to call for housing solution

Hundreds of students marched through Dublin’s city centre on Wednesday afternoon, calling on the Government to utilise part of its “rainy day” fund to tackle chronic shortages in student accommodation and the rising expense of attending third-level education.

The march was led by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) ahead of the announcement of Budget 2024 next week, the union urging Government to use 5 per cent of its budget surplus – “expected to reach €65 billion in the next two years” – to ease student hardship.

At the Garden of Remembrance, Craig Hanley (22), a fourth-year architecture student from Celbridge, Co Kildare, said that the prospect of living in Dublin during his degree has “always been unattainable”.

“It numbs you down, to the point of accepting it, that this is just the way it is,” Mr Hanley, who studies at Technological University Dublin (TUD) said on Wednesday afternoon.

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“We’re obviously still getting through college – we’ve got to this stage of fourth year, we’ll probably get through our degree fine without having student housing, but it makes the quality of the student experience that much worse.

“We’ll never have the opportunity to engage in anything. The minute that this [protest] is done, we’re going to have to get back in our cars and go home,” he added.

Mr Hanley has commuted to college from his home since first year. “Commuting in, every day, by car is not sustainable, it’s not practical, it’s just impossible to try to study this way.”

Colm Breslin (22), a coursemate of Mr Hanley’s, said he knew of a student on their degree course travelling from Co Roscommon every day. “It’s insane that she has to travel that far, because she can’t afford to live in Dublin.”

Julie Stroemple (20), from Cleveland in the United States and studying political science at Trinity College, spends three hours commuting to college from Maynooth every day. “[It] affects my studies and my mental health as well.”

Standing beside Ms Stroemple, Libby Marchant (21), from Waterford, said that she had joined the protest to support those “who have large problems trying to find accommodation”.

“I had to take out loans to be able to come up to Dublin, which is something probably unheard of in previous generations,” the English and sociology student said.

“I fall just outside the Susi grant [threshold], which doesn’t take inflation into account,” she added.

Grace Lavin (24), a fourth-year architecture student at TUD, pays €1,000 for her rented accomodation in Dublin – a cost that is “completely unsustainable” as a student, she said, walking along Eden Quay.

“I have to ask my parents for money to pay for a bit of it, and it’s just extremely difficult to afford, never mind the living conditions. Full of mould, thin windows, no insulation, dampy, cold, pretty much sums it all up,” the Maynooth native said.

Ms Lavin said that universities should have the capacity to accommodate all students, “at least for their first year of college”.

“It’s been taking way too long for the Government to create affordable housing . . . it’s just a real issue that there’s a lot of greed in the world as regards to property owners.”

Addressing demonstrators at Merrion Square, Chris Clifford, president of the USI, said that students were calling on the Government to “fund the future of this country”.

“Invest in purpose-built student accomodation, cut the fees that deprive thousands of students of higher education, restore the living grant so students can study in dignity. We are all here today to stand up for what is right,” he said.

A number of Opposition TDs also addressed students, including Richard Boyd Barrett, Mairéad Farrell and Aodhán Ó Ríordáin.

Meanwhile, in the Dáil, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said students “will not be forgotten” in next week’s budget.

Mr Varadkar said they had not been forgotten in the previous budget, with a reduction in college fees, an increase in the Susi grant and its eligibility, and extending the rent credit to students.

The Fine Gael leader said the number of student beds and apartments had increased by 13,000 since 2016, with a further 8,000 under construction.

With students taking to the streets calling for action, third-level institutions have also lobbied the Government for support in recent weeks, warning of a threat to their ability to offer high-quality education due to rising student-staff ratios and underfunding.

In September, eight university presidents and their governing authority chairpeople wrote to the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and other Ministers to highlight what they said was a combined shortfall of more than €600 million across 2023 and 2024.

Last week, Linda Doyle, provost of Trinity College, called on students, staff and alumni of the university to support calls for more funding in the higher education sector ahead of Budget 2024.

“Another budget cannot be allowed to come and go without meaningful improvement for our sector on core funding. Core funding is absolutely essential to delivering the conditions that will allow us to achieve our ambitions,” Ms Doyle wrote in an email to students and staff.