'Nowhere to park, nowhere to live' - UL students stage protest over lack of accommodation and overcrowding

UNIVERSITY of Limerick students who are fed up with "subpar accommodation conditions and insane rental prices" are demanding a housing plan for 2025 as well as "an explanation and acknowledgement of complacency" from the university.

The students, who gathered for a protest, are calling on UL to provide housing that "accommodates the students we have now and will have in 10 years, and to continue to develop capacity".

The protest, which took place on the plaza outside the university's Main Building on Thursday, came exactly a week after the University of Limerick appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) where senior management in the university faced scrutiny from TDs over the overspending on the Dunnes site and student housing in Rhebogue.

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The protest was organised by a grassroots student group called the House Action Group(HAG).

Organiser with the group, Kasper Domagala said: "We organised this to make real people's actual anger about housing and to bring people who would be complaining about this in bars and to their mates together and to make a stand."

Limerick Live spoke to students who attended the protest, and many expressed their frustration at paying high rent for crammed conditions in university-owned accommodation.

Conditions outlined by students included two bathrooms in an apartment which accommodates up to six people. Students described having no choice but to take accommodation they can barely afford because they are unable to commute.

In 2019, the university purchased properties at Rhebogue for twice the market price of the average property in the area in Limerick.

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Catherine Murphy TD stated to UL representatives at the PAC: "It's not 10% over, it's nearly double the price."

Deputy Murphy went on to ask how much students were paying in rent to live in the Rhebogue accommodation.

Acting Chief Finance and Performance Officer John Field said: "The bedrooms are predominantly let on a 51 week basis at the moment, Deputy, for just over €9,000." 

A post-grad student who lived in Rhebogue last year, and who has asked to remain anonymous, told Limerick Live: "It was alright living there but the rent was, well, I suppose it was pretty standard - it was about €800 a month average. Some months were lower, some months were higher."

When asked to clarify why the rent paid was higher or lower each month the student replied: "I think it was just a standard thing, it worked out at about €800 average a month, there was no reason for any differences [in monthly changes to the amount] but there was never a crazy difference, the first few months were €770 and the next few were €800 odd.."

The student was paying €800 for a room in the house with three other students each paying the same amount per month. The same student now lives in privately-rented accommodation elsewhere in Castletroy and pays €520 a month for the academic year.

Eighty students reside in the twenty houses purchased by UL in Rhebogue, meaning that the university collects €3,200 per household each month and approximately €768,000 in total annually from the eighty postgrads living in Rhebogue.

Kye Earle is a first-year student attending UL and lives in on-campus accommodation. They said: "I'm paying €816 a month for accommodation in UL, there's six of us in the flat so they're getting six by over €800 a month and we're being told we can't use above a certain amount of electricity or they'll charge us more.

"We just got an email about that today and the accommodation is nicer than some of the other places but it's still outrageous for what we're paying. I can barely afford that myself, I'm on disability and other things and I can barely afford that so I don't know how anyone else is managing."

Another student said they paid roughly €750 for a room in Drumroe. They said: "Somewhere about that range for Kilmurry as well and in both of them, I was in a six-person house.

"At least in Drumroe you had ensuites and stuff like that and the shared facilities were decent but in Kilmurry the bathrooms are shared among six people altogether so of course it ends up disgusting especially if you end up with roommates that aren't very good at that."

The student said that six students shared a household in Kilmurry that had just two bathrooms between them and no ensuites. The student remarked: "It ain't pretty."

Another student who attended the protest lives in student accommodation in College Court. He said: "I only got that place because I knew somebody which I think is a huge issue in Ireland which is you have to know someone to get somewhere.

"Like if you're coming into Limerick - I'm from Wexford originally - and I was in student housing in first year in Plassey which was ridiculous, it was €650 a month which I could barely afford so there was a financial pressure on top of my study pressure."

The student continued: "In second year I was commuting which was insane, third year I was doing my coop, I wasn't in Ireland. Now, in fourth year for college, I was so worried all summer about getting housing and then I finally got this place in College Court and it's €450 a month which is very affordable but, again, that's only because I know the landlord from four years in Limerick. That's what that gets you."

The student described the housing itself as "not great" that there was mold in the house and he claimed the houses "don't really meet the safety requirements that should be laid out for the rental market, so, personally, I feel like a lot of students are being let down with subpar conditions and insane rental prices which are provoked by just an insane amount of students coming to Limerick." 

The student concluded by saying: "If you look at a lot of the houses they rent out to students, they seem to be kind of council housing that was bought in the 90s. It was made for a family, you know, two parents, two children.

"They're not rooms - like I'm living in a tiny box room which is all I have lived in, in college, tiny box rooms that are made for children or they're made for storage which has been converted into a bedroom which is completely wrong."