A Wexford TD has slammed as “divisive, reckless and ridiculous” plans by the government to increase the numbers of foreign students in Ireland by a further 10% despite the crisis in student accommodation.
Sinn Féin’s Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin made his comments as the Joint Committee on Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science met to debate housing for students yesterday in the Dáil.
The acute shortage of accommodation for students has now become the “single greatest barrier to completing education” according to some observers.
Deputy Ó Súilleabháin said that the “issues are the cost, quality and quantity of student accommodation” and said he wished to focus on points made by the students unions representative “on how exploitative it is for foreign students and domestic students.”
“We mentioned the case of 18 students in a two-bed unit, as well as sex for sale. One in 20 international students are approached. I see a very greedy, privatised, exploitative model which exists in Ireland at the moment. I wonder are the unions strongly calling out the Government on this,” he said.
“There is a focus on international students. There was an article in The Irish Times this week, quoting Eurostat and KPMG. They were celebrating. They said there is a surge of 33% over the past four years in the number of international students, compared with a 5% increase in domestic students. They were celebrating this. They said it is one of the main drivers of economic growth,” he added.
He then said that the ratio of international versus domestic students in Ireland is almost two times the EU average – and that the government “wants to increase the cohort of international students by a further 10%.”
“This is reckless. It is absolutely ridiculous. It is exploitative and causing division,” he said, asking “are unions questioning the wisdom of this approach? It is really the elephant in the room.”
“Those with a privatised model want to bring in more and more students and I can see the benefit. Obviously, they are making a lot of money. Many students are getting exploited. It is obviously causing huge competition. It is not quantum physics, it is pretty basic supply and demand. It is purely down to Government policy that it has not provided the accommodation and that is the core of the problem. Is it wise to bring in a further 10% of students if the existing cohort is not getting accommodated?” he asked.
“Figures from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) show that the number of international students rose to 40,400 in 2024—accounting for over 15% of the 265,905 third-level students. This compares to an EU average of just 8.4% in 2023. These figures do not include the additional 128,300 students with visas to enrol on English language courses,” he said.
“The Government now aims to increase the numbers by 10% by 2030. This is divisive, reckless and ridiculous . If we’re already in crisis, how do they plan to accommodate even more students?” the Deputy later said.
The meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Further and Higher Education, Innovation and Science heard from representatives from the university student unions including the President of Aontas na Mac Leinn in Éirinn.
Responding, Bryan O’Mahony, president of Amlé, the union of students in Ireland, said that “whenever we are looking at trying to increase the demand, any country would want students to come to study in their country.”
“With regard to increasing class sizes, we have seen over the years an increased demand for, say, veterinarian courses. Those courses are now being increased, with new courses being brought across to Atlantic Technological University, ATU, and the South East Technological University, SETU. If we are trying to increase class sizes, we need to make sure we are increasing the supports available for those students, such as increasing the accommodation supply,” he added.
“Where we are trying to increase our market, we should make sure we are not just chasing students for more money. If we are going to get more students to study in our colleges in Ireland, we need to make sure they are being looked after. Courses sizes cannot be increased without increasing the supports for students,” he added.
However, University College Cork Students’ Union president Alex Angland said that “there are definitely dangers in taking in greater numbers of international students.”
“We have seen what happened with the University of Aberdeen in Scotland recently. What is happening with the colleges is that they are being incentivised to take in more and more students to be used as, essentially, cash cows. We saw from the Cassells report that there is a €300 million deficit in core funding across the university sector. International students have been used as a method to try to make up this deficit. As the Deputy said, Government policy is incentivising universities and colleges to take these actions,” he said.