Students in a Dublin university are being encouraged to take up residence in a new accommodation complex on the grounds of a well-known secondary school in Co Meath.

Some 100 rooms, located beside Gormanston College near Balbriggan, are being marketed to DCU students as the housing crisis continues.

The rooms are owned and run by Gormanston Park, a private company, and were formerly used by boarding students in the secondary school.

Around 50 of the rooms on offer come with an en-suite bathroom while the remainder have shared bathroom facilities.

A flyer for the complex says residents can make use of a range of leisure facilities on the grounds of the complex, including a nine-hole golf course, pitches and a swimming pool.

The complex is located some 30km from DCU. However, a spokesman for the housing complex said there were a number of services which students could use to get to classes.

"There is the 101 Bus Éireann service, which will collect just 350 metres from the park, as well as the train station, which is just over 1km away. We could also put on a shuttle service to allow students use the Matthews bus service," he said.

Breakfast and dinner will also be provided. En-suite rooms will cost just over €7,200 for the year, with standard rooms at €6,000.

DCU Students' Union alerted incoming students to the new complex. Vice president James Donoghue said the union wanted "to present as many options as possible to students".

"We don't want a situation where students have to defer a course because they can't find somewhere to live," he said.

Gormanston Park said that while the second and third-level students would be on the same campus, they would be kept apart, and that it had received several enquiries from students.

Irish Independent