The use of student accommodation to house refugees will no longer be permitted under new government protocols.
The Department of Higher Education and the Department of Integration have agreed new protocols in relation to student housing.
It comes as a complex in Sligo, was expected to accommodate asylum seekers into next year. This was causing concern at the Atlantic Technological University as many wondered where students would be housed.
Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has now announced that all facilities will be returned to the Department for the start of term.
Under the new agreement, the Department of Integration can only request to use a student housing facility if it has been empty for more than 12 months.
Higher Education Minister Simon Harris says it was important to provide clarity to students.
"All of the beds that have been provided for the summer period this year and indeed last year, will be handed back to the universities and students use in advance of the college year.
So, like our sector is really eager. I know students are really eager.
The colleges are really eager to do everything they can to help people with this humanitarian crisis.
But there also needs to be a degree of kind of common sense in terms of how it works, and I think the protocol tries to get that balance right."
Accommodation Scams
Minister Harris is also warning students to be wary of scams as they search for housing.
Gardaí report there has been a 65 percent rise in accommodation scams since 2019.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission warn not to accept a room before viewing and never hand over a deposit in cash.
