The Integration Minister Roderic O'Gorman and Higher Education Minister Simon Harris will meet today, to discuss a reported 'rift' over student accommodation.
60 apartments at the Cork Student Village are set to be used to house Ukrainian refugees, in a twelve-month contract with Minister Roderic O'Gorman's Department.
While in Sligo, between four and five hundred students were informed by a provider it would no longer be offering student accommodation, as it plans for the apartments to be used for the same purpose.
Speaking yesterday, Minister Simon Harris said:
“Student accommodation that is required for students needs to be used for students.”
“Much of that accommodation receives planning permission on the basis that it will be used for students,”
“Colleges right around the country are quite rightly providing thousands of beds to help with the humanitarian crisis for the summer period."
“But those beds will be given back in time for the academic year."
According to the Irish Daily Mail, both Ministers will meet to discuss these matters, and will potentially agree on a protocol around the use of student housing.
