Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I am interested in exploring the issue that most students believe they do not have protections in respect of rent pressure zones, the right to take a case to the RTB and so on. I am hearing that in fact, many students and probably most students do have that right. Let us drill down into that a little bit. Ms Carroll mentioned that there have been a number of cases. From what she has said I get the impression that it is very few. I do not know if she has a specific number or a range. Can Ms Carroll say if there have been four cases, for example, or that there were somewhere between three and six cases? I would like to get an idea on that.

A student accommodation provider may be a big, global, corporate entity. I am thinking perhaps of an area in Cork, which is the area I represent. Some of the new student accommodation providers coming in there are charging more than €200 per week. Most of the students there are operating on the basis that they do not have the type of protections to which we have referred. In the case of a student who signs up for a 39-week agreement, which would be fairly typical for the college year, is Ms Carroll saying that such a student probably has the right to take a dispute before the RTB? Crucially, were the landlord or owner of the complex to turn around and increase the rent by 18%, which is an example we were given in Galway not so long ago or by 27%, which was noted on the north side of Dublin recently and were that student accommodation provider based in a rent pressure zone, would that provider have massively overstepped the mark? If that case was taken before the board, is it as likely as not that the accommodation provider would be told it had overstepped the mark and that any rent increase would have to be pegged back to 4%? I am not sure if I am getting this right and I ask Ms Carroll for clarification on those points.