Mayo students at a crossroads of hope and concern

In the wake of Budget 2024, Mayo students find themselves at the crossroads of hope and concern.

While the budget introduces measures that appear to ease the financial burden on students and their families, a stark reality of the ever-present student accommodation crisis fails to be addressed.

Mayo Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon commended Minister Simon Harris for taking a step in the right direction by significantly reducing student fees, particularly for households with less than €100,000 income.

This entails a fee reduction and an additional €500 student contribution grant from SUSI, offering financial relief to thousands of students.

Nevertheless, the jubilation is far from unanimous, with Dean Kenny, the president of the University of Galway Student Union, expressing profound concerns.

Kenny highlights that, astonishingly, the budget neglects the most pressing issue for students - affordable accommodation.

The omission of this critical matter raises questions about the government's commitment to addressing the housing crisis, considering that a substantial number of landlords in Ireland remain unregistered with the RTB.

Kenny's concerns are not unwarranted.

A survey conducted early in the academic year found that 30% of students lacked permanent accommodation.

"The implications of this crisis are far-reaching, forcing students into arduous commutes and depriving them of the college experience that Galway is known for.

“I had a student in to me this week. He is commuting from Carlow every day, that’s seven and a half hours in a car.

“The University of Galway have added 674 new beds but they’re luxury accommodation, charging students €974 for a bed in the midst of this crisis,” says Belcarra native Kenny.

The budget's silence on plans to alleviate these costs only adds to the growing dismay among students.

In terms of commuting, students find themselves spending hours each day behind the wheel of a car or dealing with overcrowded buses. This has a knock-on cost to students' mental health, and the student council hears this first-hand on a daily basis.

Students’ lives are taken up with driving and stressing and it’s unfair.

The impact of this accommodation crisis is far-reaching.

Kenny foresees more students dropping out of college, especially those from low-income families, unable to shoulder the weight of the housing burden.

In his view, Budget 2024, at best, is a mere ‘plaster over a gaping wound’.

Many others would share this view.