"Dyke Road Land Ideal For Affordable Student Accommodation" - Ian Ó Dálaigh
Éirígí For a New Republic's Galway representative, Ian Ó Dálaigh, has called for a proposed new housing development on the Dyke Road to be used for genuinely affordable student accommodation within a new system of Universal Public Housing.
Speaking from the City of the Tribes, Ó Dálaigh said, "The LDA and Galway City Council have put plans in place for a mixed-use development on the Dyke Road, which is set to include an estimated 200 homes.
The plans were first announced in 2018, with local media announcing last year that governance documents were being finalised between the LDA and GCC (as with the proposed Sandy Road development). The Dyke Road site is situated in close proximity to NUIG, so it would make perfect sense for this development to consist of purpose-built student accommodation.
The Draft Galway City Development Plan actually mentions the possibility of including “innovation and research uses allied to NUIG [now University of Galway]”. So if this development is going to have links with NUIG, it would make perfect sense for it to be also used for affordable student housing.
Ian Ó Dálaigh is calling for purpose built student accommodation to be built on the Dyke Road in Galway City
Building student accommodation on this site would kill two birds with one stone by providing hundreds of students with affordable accommodation, while also freeing up large numbers of homes, that students are currently renting, for non-students to live in.
This is the context for me calling on Galway City Council and the LDA to use this land to build purpose built student accommodation as part of a wider system of Universal Public Housing. Sites like the Dyke Road and the old Corrib Great Southern Hotel site should be utilised in a strategic manner to address the chronic shortage of student housing.
The student housing crisis - and the housing crisis in general - highlights the inability of the private market to provide secure, affordable homes for all.
We need to stop treating housing as a commodity and start treating it as the essential public service that it is. We in Éirígí believe the state should provide affordable secure housing for all sections of society, including single people, families, students, pensioners and those with additional needs - all under the umbrella of UP Housing.
Students, workers, and everyone else that's negatively affected by the profit-driven crisis must unite to build a movement that can deliver housing justice".