Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)

While I am happy to see the witnesses here, it is such a shame that they have to come in. I hope people are listening. I hope the Government is listening because what the organisations are hearing on the ground needs to be heard and needs to be actioned on. Over the summer, I have had horrendous phone calls from people. I have even had parents coming into my office to say they are actively trying to persuade their children not to go to third level education because they are embarrassed that they cannot afford it. That is shocking. It is shocking that we have that. I also met those 18 students who were spoken of. We will not say where they were, but they were put into conditions where they were unknown to each other. Eighteen of them landed at a house together with their suitcases. What I saw was disgusting. The fact is it was falsely advertised because the advertisement told them they would be sharing with three other people. That was a false advertisement. They are international students who do not have local knowledge and do not have anyone to go back to. It was the neighbours who contacted people to say that this was happening.

I got an email from DCU regarding the press release that went out.

DCU is trying to say that the cost of services and utilities reflects market conditions and they are separate. It also says that, in the past 18 months, the cost of gas has risen by 42%, the cost of electricity has risen by 82% and the cost of maintenance has increased by 30%. They are shockingly high figures, which are passed on to students. That situation needs to be called out.

A dedicated student accommodation unit has been established to help this year. Personally, I do not think the unit is up to scratch in terms of what it is supposed to do. On the short-term measures that have been introduced, spending €100 million and only 116 beds being delivered so far is also not good enough.

There seems to be a push for people to go more into digs with a tax break of up to €14,000. This measure is pricing out some ordinary landlords. My colleague, Mairéad Farrell, tabled digs regulations. I will bring this issue up again because I do not believe that licences are good enough. We need to protect students. Students should be able to attend third level education with a positive outcome and not be made to feel that they are in a house, cannot use a washing machine and have to be home at a certain time, missing out on the social aspect of student life.

The National Youth Council of Ireland conducted a survey that revealed that two thirds of 18-to-24-year-olds did not believe they had a future in Ireland. What do our guests think of that statistic? Do people report the same issues to the students' unions present?

I have read all of the statements. What is good about their statements is that they do not just outline complaints and what is wrong but also give solutions, which must be brought forward and examined. That is something that my party will continue to push for.

The inequity regarding TUS is something that my party will raise. I cannot understand why a technological university cannot borrow because being able to would help.

We have already spoken about the expansion of SUSI, which is a topic of discussion for another meeting.

The HEA is working on an outdated accommodation policy that dates from 2015, so we need a new policy up and running.

The consideration of new student accommodation seems to be looking at smaller units and shared units like dormitories. Has that approach been fully agreed with students' unions? Will it help solve the issues?

I believe that new student accommodation must be publicly owned.