Ms Sarah Hughes:

One of the reasons for that is that people living in a house with six, seven or eight other people do not have the privacy to do a telehealth appointment. We also know from our pre-Covid research that when students have multiple pressures, such as work piling up and deadlines for college, as the Cathaoirleach mentioned, the first thing that falls off are the likes of their social lives and hobbies. These may seem like small things but they are what builds their connectedness and sense of belonging, as well as their self-care.

Aside from people living near their campuses in precarious housing, we have students commuting ridiculous hours every day to and from college because they did not get accommodation. It could be a commute of two or three hours each way every day. That impacts on their sleep, as well as everything else, which we know has a knock-on impact on mental health. While there are direct links between precarious housing and students' mental health status, there are also many indirect impacts as well.