NUIG seeks five-star hotels as students face rent hikes

Bradley Bytes – A Sort of Political Column with Dara Bradley

NUI Galway is set to splash €180,000 on hotel accommodation, including five-star hotels.

That’s quite a lot of public money for any institution to spend on hotels. But the timing of this invitation to tender for hotel accommodation is, well, unfortunate – in the midst of a rent-rise controversy on campus.

Regular readers will recall last week’s column, where the Students’ Union was criticised for not mobilising the wider student population against the planned 4% increase in rent.

The hike in rents at Goldcrest student accommodation on campus – where a single room will rise to €750 per month from September – was announced around the same time NUIG was preparing tender documents for hotels.

NUIG has advertised that it is establishing a service panel for the provision of overnight accommodation and related services for use by the university in Galway City.

The contract value is €180,000. The accommodation sought is three-star, four-star, and five-star hotels within a five-kilometre radius of the city campus, as well as for guesthouses and B&Bs.

The accommodation must be of a certain quality, according to the tender. Firstly, the business must be registered with Fáilte Ireland. Wifi must be available to guests free of charge. And breakfast must be available and included in the room rates provided to NUIG.

The closing date for applications is March 12, and accommodation providers will be notified whether they are successful or not by March 23.

It is highly likely the department within NUIG that is responsible for issuing the tender for booking local hotels, has nothing to do with whoever is responsible for setting the rate of rents for on-campus bedrooms. And maybe it’s too simplistic to suggest the €180,000 to be spent on hotels could instead be used to alleviate the burden of rent rises on students. But there is an air of ‘Let them eat cake’ about it.

Part-time protestors

As was mentioned here last week, about a dozen students and Students’ Union members at NUIG camped out at the Quadrangle last Thursday night, in protest at proposed rent rises for on-campus rooms.

It was a short-lived protest, however. Citing concerns about storm Jorge, which was due to arrive in the West on Saturday, the SU decided to take the weekend off.

You couldn’t make it up: it took students over a week to respond with direct action to the rent rise and when they did, a day later, they packed up their tents!

If ever there was a metaphor for students’ apathy, the protestors effectively being ‘rained-off’ after just one day protesting was surely it.

*For more Bradley Bytes see this week’s Galway City Tribune