Student accommodation sites will have to be vacant for 12 months before the Department of Integration can seek to use them.
Plans to use a student accommodation complex in Sligo to house refugees beyond the Summer will now not go ahead.
The Higher Education Minister Simon Harris and Integration Minister Roderic O'Gorman have agreed new protocols around the use of student housing.
Student accommodation sites will have to be vacant for 12 months before the Department of Integration can seek to use them.
Higher Education Minister Simon Harris says it means accommodation in Sligo used during this summer will be handed back: