Students are being "robbed" of an education and "a proper college experience" due to a shortage of accommodation, according to the Provost of Trinity College Dublin.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Dr Linda Doyle described the accommodation shortage as a "real crisis" and said there is "huge anxiety" among students.
"There's no end of people telling us really, really difficult stories about how hard it is to find accommodation," she said.
Dr Doyle said TCD offers 1,600 rooms, but all are fully booked with long waiting lists.
She said the university also has access to another 489 rooms through a third party, but these are also fully booked.
"We're due to have another 250 rooms available in the next few months in what's known as Printing House Square in Trinity. That's good but it is a drop in the ocean in the context of the crisis that we're facing," she said.
"If you are commuting long distances or if you’re living in really expensive accommodation and you have to work all the extra hours that exist, you can't focus on your study and you can’t get the wider benefits of college; mixing with your peers and developing all of those life skills that people deem so important.
"We are robbing this generation of a proper college experience," Dr Doyle said.
She added: "We need to solve the housing crisis in Ireland to solve the student accommodation crisis. We need to do it at speed."
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UCD appealing to home owners to rent to students
Members of UCD Students' Union have started a 'digs drive' this week, appealing to home owners to rent rooms to students.
The week-long campaign kicked off this morning at St Stephen's Green in Dublin where members of the student's union handed out flyers to commuters and spoke to them about the initiative.
Information leaflets, appealing to members of the public to open up their homes to students will also be delivered to 20,000 houses surrounding UCD.
Robyn O'Keefe, Campaign and Engagement Officer with UCD Students' Union, said: "We are also going to be leafleting at DART stations and at 20,000 houses in the surrounding area of UCD and we are really hoping that that will have an impact and that people will open up rooms."
The students' union has warned that those who fail to secure accommodation for the next academic year will be forced to take drastic measures.
Out with @UCDSU this morning for their 'Digs Drive', trying to convince members of the public to open their homes to students. We’ll be live on @morningireland shortly. pic.twitter.com/aGE1io84a8
— Aengus Cox (@AengusCox) August 22, 2022
Míde Nic Fhionnlaoich, Welfare Officer with UCD Students' Union, said: "The sad fact of the matter is that a lot of students will have to take the really tough decision to take a leave of absence, to drop out, to defer the year or face harrowing commutes from the likes of Galway and Belfast.
"We are already hearing stories of people doing that and if you're travelling five hours round trip a day to go to college, how can you focus on your academics? How can you focus on your life with no rest?."
Ms O'Keefe said the response so far to the 'digs drive' has been positive and that people are sympathetic but some people they have spoken to feel that they are unable to help as they live too far away from the university.
However, Ms O'Keefe said that UCD has given a commitment to help students who find accommodation that is not located close to the campus.
"We have a commitment from UCD to provide shuttle buses to and from both the DART line and the Luas line so that will hopefully make the commute for students a little bit easier," she said.
Ms Nic Fhionnlaoich said the ordeal is "taking its toll" on some students.
"Students have been looking for months - like final year students, mature students. Every single cohort is feeling the squeeze and it's really having a negative impact on their welfare."
She said the union is being contacted by students who are feeling "anxious and stressed" about the struggle with securing accommodation.
"We are really seeing it take a toll on our students who are coming in saying 'I'm so stressed, I'm so anxious, my whole family is anxious and stressed about this and they just don't know what they are going to do'," she added.
Ryan Moran, a 4th Year UCD Medical Student from Mullingar Co Westmeath, has been searching for a place to live in Dublin since June.
He said: "We have been searching from start of June, end of May, I'd say we have emailed collectively 300 different listings on daft. I think the most we have come up with is maybe three viewings.
"I don't know if I'm going to have to take a year out or if I'm going to have to commute each day. I am just so fed up trying to find somewhere and just being told no or that I don't have enough money."
Ciaran Scanlon, a 3rd Year UCD Civil engineering student from Waterford, says he's been very stressed about not being able to find somewhere to live in Dublin with just weeks to go to the start of the new term.
He said: "You go onto daft you don't get any answers back. The second you mention you're a student you just don't even get an email back saying considering your application.
"With just two weeks to go now and not having any leads on anywhere and like you're nonstop sending emails and asking people and just to hear nothing back it's very worrying."
Additional reporting Aisling Kenny
