Work is to get under way to develop student accommodation at five technological universities which are spread across 12 counties, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris has announced.
The minister said the aim is to develop a range of options including State supported purpose-built student accommodation.
This could lead to thousands more beds becoming available for students around the country.
Minister Harris said he has met all the technological universities and there is a clear desire to start building and acquiring accommodation.
The Higher Education Authority, together with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research and Innovation, will now work closely with the technological universities, to establish and assess the demand for student accommodation in key regions.
The following campuses will be included: ATU – Atlantic Technological University, SETU – South East Technological University, MTU – Munster Technological University, TUD – Technological University Dublin, TUS – Technological University of the Shannon, IADT – Institute of Art Design & Technology and DKIT – Dundalk Institute of Technology.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Colm Ó Mongain, the minister said the State is working with third level institutions that have planning permission to get the projects up and running.
Prior to this, the State has never funded student accommodation, he said.
"Over 1,100 beds in Galway, in Maynooth, in DCU and in Limerick have now moved forward as a result of the State, for the first time ever, part-funding them."
Minister Harris said the Government has sought guarantees of affordability in return for the funding.
He said "every cent of investment" that the State is investing "is being given back in the equivalent of rooms being given back in below market rent".
Mr Harris said market rent will be based on the areas in which accommodations is being built and that levels have not yet been set.
Meanwhile, the Higher Education Authority has found there is capacity in Ireland's third level institutions for hundreds of new third level places for medicine, healthcare and veterinary medicine.
In a report for the Government, the HEA said that with investment, nearly 1,400 extra medical and veterinary professionals could be trained each year.
The authority found capacity for an additional 208 places in medicine; 690 in nursing; 196 in pharmacy; 63 in dentistry and 230 in veterinary medicine across 11 different institutions.
