Ms Megan Reilly:

I echo the sentiments Ms Byrne expressed about how extending the rent pressure zones to purpose-built student accommodation is coming slightly too late. It is a source of great frustration to a lot of students that there could be a house two minutes down the road from their own accommodation where the rent can only go up by 4%, yet rent for the purpose-built accommodation they live in can jump by 25% overnight. With student villages releasing information now, there is no telling how many increases we will see before this legislation can be enacted.

I want to come in on a few points Deputy Jan O'Sullivan made which we did not address in our opening statement. In respect of deposits, the one-month issue would be very welcome because in a lot of student accommodations, moieties have to be paid upfront. That can be a massive chunk of money. We also experience many issues with students not being able to get deposits back or being discriminated against for particular things. For example, professional cleaning fees may be outlined but with no real evidence or justification given. I also wish to express support for the dwelling-specific rent register. As we mentioned, a lot of the information gathering to see the increases year on year has been left to student unions. Our own data gathering shows that even four or five years ago, increases were about 3% per year but now all of a sudden we are seeing these massive jumps of 20%. There is a lot of concern about a market that goes so unregulated. It brings it up to the market standard and where does the market go from there?