Mr. Paul Dunne:

The Deputy mentioned the RTB submission and its contention that the licence of student accommodation is covered in the Residential Tenancies Act. I am not 100% sure that it is. It has to be tested. It might be called a licence, but in operation it operates as a tenancy. The best approach is to ensure that there is no doubt that student is covered either by licence or tenancy. In doing that we would have to cover publicly and privately provided accommodation so that we do not treat students differently. We are proposing some amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act to address that.

The Department recognises the Deputy's intent, as does the Government. We are on board with it and are working with it. We hope to publish the residential tenancies amendment Bill this session and introduce amendments for student accommodation as we go through the process.