Laura Harmon (Labour)

I welcome everyone. It is great to see AMLÉ here today and representatives from the students' unions from all across the country. My Wi-Fi is down so my notes are not in front of me but I know the issue quite well. Over ten years ago, I was president of the Union of Students in Ireland, which is now known as AMLÉ. Student accommodation was in crisis then and is in even more of a crisis now. The current situation was predictable and preventable and, unfortunately, the crisis is exacerbated and affects students and families. Student poverty is a real issue. It is important that student poverty be named in light of the cost-of-living crisis that we have at the minute, as well as the rising costs of rent all across the country and the lack of rental protections.

Last night, I read the statement of Mr. Alex Angland, the president of the UCC students' union. I live in Cork and went to college there. Having read the statement, it is quite stark that UCC has the lowest level of purpose-built student accommodation in the country at just 18%. That percentage is much lower than what is available in the cities of Dublin, Limerick and Galway, whose percentages are not anywhere near sufficient either. We also know that rents have risen nationally by 10% in recent times. This all means that students are under pressure.

In some instances there has been an over-reliance on the rent-a-room relief scheme. It is a brilliant scheme that has been used to good effect and promoted. Certainly, families and those wanting to rent out a room have benefited from the scheme. Over the years, however, it has been used as a Band-Aid to solve accommodation issues when in reality we need to build more.

I agree with the call made by the students' unions for greater provision for the technological universities to be able to borrow to acquire land and build their own purpose-built accommodation. We have engaged with the Minister on student accommodation, so I know that a strategy is being finalised. It is urgently needed. There also needs to be more collaboration between the Department of housing and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

I will refer to another figure. Last year, the UCC students' union conducted a survey that found that over a quarter of students had gone to class hungry. That highlights the issue of student poverty.

In my previous role, I worked with international students. They are quite vulnerable because they cannot avail of the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. digs option. We know of another issue that affects many vulnerable people in this country, including students. I refer to the advertisements we are seeing that proposition people in terms of sex for rent. Earlier this year, I introduced legislation to tackle this issue. We know that 5% of international women students have seen these ads and are being propositioned directly. That is extremely worrying and shows the shadowy underbelly of this housing crisis and how it affects the most vulnerable and students.

Mr. O'Mahony outlined the issue of student accommodation in his opening statement. What does he think really needs to happen in the upcoming budget to help students in terms of accommodation and more broadly?