Students at the University of Galway are holding a sleep out in Eyre Square to highlight the fact that the housing crisis is now “continuously getting worse”. 

According to Daft.ie, rents in the City of the Tribes have risen by 13% in the space of just a year. 

On The Claire Byrne Show, SU President Seán de Búrca said new student accommodation has come on stream, but it remains hugely expensive. 

“I suppose this year what we're looking at is something different, in that it's not as much of a leap compared to last year in how many people are struggling to find somewhere to live,” he said. 

“This year, we have new student accommodation down by the docks - but that's starting at €295 a week, that's the cheapest option.” 

Despite this, the arrival of CAO offers means the Students’ Union is inundated with calls from new students who are struggling to find a place to live. 

“Epecially since the CAO offers have been out, we've been getting more phone calls coming in from both students and parents,” Mr de Búrca explained.  

“I know that when it comes to people going into first year because they've had less time to try and look for somewhere, they're at a greater risk of being forced to pay those higher prices. 

“For all 10 of the poorest counties in Ireland, there was an increase in the number of CAO applications to the University of Galway this year compared to the year before - the biggest increase is a 25% increase from Donegal, which is the poorest county. 

“We're going to see throughout the year of students struggling to simply make ends meet.”

Eyre Square in Galway,. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

For anyone who still has yet to find somewhere to live, Mr de Búrca suggested they contact the university’s accommodation advisory service. 

“There'll be some landlords out there who don't want to advertise online and just want to have that one phone call,” he said. 

“We, of course, would encourage them to have a look at StudentPad - that's one just for people who are renting specifically to students. 

“So, you can find sort of nicer landlords there who might be looking for providing a lower rent.”

In the long-term, Mr de Búrca noted there is currently at least a 15,000 bed in the student accommodation sector. 

He lamented that the Government’s “ambition is to not do very much” on housing, but urged them to crack down on short-term lets in the meantime. 

“There needs to be some level of security of tenure,” he suggested. 

“[It] doesn't require a change in law at all; if you look at the amount of Airbnbs in Galway in particular, there's hundreds,” he said. 

“But at the same time, you can look at how many of those have the required planning permission and are actually legal short-term lets, it's less than 10. 

“So, we don't even need to change the law there, we just need to enforce the law.”

Main image: Eyre Square in Galway. Picture by: Alamy.com.