Mr. Emil Kindl:

Yes. Two blocks at Clarion Village are coming back, but that does not take into account those 500 beds that were lost in Benbulben Court and Milligan Court. When we run the rent-a-room campaign, we are just getting to that level of what we lost, basically overnight. All our efforts are not building up to better conditions. They are just trying to fill up the gap that was created overnight. It is very problematic. We would like to see those units coming back.

We would also like to see protection for privately owned, purpose-built student accommodation in order that these cannot be repurposed that easily. It is important to say that the story with Benbulben and Milligan Court is, after that started happening, legislation was put in place that in order to repurpose a property it had to be vacant for one year. What property owners did was state, "one year vacant". How ridiculous that is. In order to repurpose, you say, "Okay, no problem. We will stay vacant for one year. We will not house anyone. We will create a crisis for students and then we will house." In the context of Government incentives, it is ridiculous that being vacant for one year is considered profitable. It is just ridiculous.