James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. On digs, the current model has a licensing agreement. That is standardised and prepared by the Department. It is made available to all digs providers. They operate under the rent-a-room scheme mostly. There is a Revenue tax relief for them if they do that. The idea is to encourage people in any walk of life but often older people who have a spare room and are living in a university town to consider making it available to students. Some of them might have done it for years while others might have never done it before. There is a balance to be struck. I hear what the Deputy said about regulation but overregulation could completely discourage any take up of that. It is additional accommodation coming onstream. Some of those private individuals open up their own private homes where they also live. It might be the bedroom next door or on the same landing. They need a bit of coaxing to even take that step. There is a risk that if they find themselves too encumbered, they may not do it. It is discretionary and no one can force them to do it. It is usually their family home as well. What is the balance for that? The licence agreement is a good balance for it and that is making a difference.

On shared bathrooms, the standardised design model includes multiple different options. Some recent designs have had every single room being en suite. When I was a student, I certainly did not have an en suite. I shared a room with others. If we look at what they do in the UK, US and on the Continent, the norm for student accommodation is not single, en suite bedrooms. Some of the feedback we are getting, including from students, is that it actually promotes social isolation as well. Rather than living in a shared space with a shared kitchen, lounge areas and social areas, as one might expect in a college environment for people to mix in small groups - I am not talking about 100; I am talking about eight, six or even four, sharing a common studio, kitchen workspace and lounge area - students were going into their rooms, closing the door, going on their phones for the night and coming out the next day. They would spend a whole term not making any friends. It is not healthy for mental health either so there is a balance to be struck here.

The manual has looked at best practice around the world, primarily in countries with a similar OECD ranking as ourselves, in similar states of development and with similar economic circumstances, to see what is done internationally and what is best practice. It then gives a number of options to the colleges and says, "Here is a suite of examples. See what you want to do with these." They are really good. It is best practice and what they do in Oxford, Cambridge, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Copenhagen. I tend to ask why is Ireland so different. If it is not going to work for us, why not? It is pretty reasonable. I would happily live in it. I lived in an awful lot of student accommodation that was nowhere near the specification we are providing now. It is good we are raising the bar but there has to be some social interaction as well. That was maybe missing from some of the previous designs.