Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Labour Party will support the Sinn Féin Bill. We support fully what it intends to achieve. While it is good that the Government is not opposing the Bill, I do not fully understand the issues raised by the Minister of State, including the definitions issue which Deputy O'Brien has addressed, but also the issue around constitutional property rights. If we have created rent pressure zones without having a constitutional problem, notwithstanding the fact that they control the level of rent the owners of private property can get, I cannot see why there would be a constitutional problem in relation to student accommodation. I support the suggestion that the Government should incorporate the Bill's proposals in its own Bill which is due to come before the House in mid-June. We all want to make this happen. If they can be included in a Government Bill, they are likely to be introduced sooner than they would by way of an Opposition Bill. That is particularly so now that so many Opposition Bills are stacked up to be dealt with by the housing committee.

One of the most serious issues arising here is the fact that there are many barriers to higher or further education, in particular for people who do not have as much advantage as others or a tradition of proceeding to third level, without adding accommodation being another one. That is probably the most important issue in this case. People who come from relatively well-off backgrounds may not have to skip college or drop out due to accommodation costs, but there are others who will face that scenario, which is the important aspect of this. The problem has been articulated by others. I attended the protest by DCU students outside the Dáil a few weeks ago in relation to what has become known as the "Shanowen shakedown". It has also become an issue at NUIG with Cúirt na Coiribe. The increases students and their parents face are huge. Deputy Scanlon indicated that, for 2018, €8,695 plus a deposit will be required while Deputy Ellis said accommodation would cost between €925 and €966 per week. This is huge money. Deputy Scanlon also referred to on-campus accommodation costing €5,000 to €6,000 per annum, which shows that we need a great deal more publicly-built student accommodation as well as to control the private sector.

I notice that my own city of Limerick was not referred to when Deputy Ó Broin was talking about this in the media earlier. Part of the reason is that Limerick in general and the University of Limerick in particular have a much higher proportion of public student accommodation per head than the other university towns and cities. In effect, that ensures we do not have the same cost problems in Limerick as one sees in Dublin, Cork and Galway. I have statistics for 2014 which set out that there were 6,500 public units in Dublin, 813 in Cork, 764 in Galway, 446 in Waterford and 2,590 in Limerick. One of the reasons is that the University of Limerick sits on a large campus that is not in the city centre. Either way, the statistics show huge cost increases. Trinity College Dublin's students' union carried out research in April 2016 which showed that the average rent for students totalled €490 per month while the maximum was €704. There has been a huge jump from that to the €900 per month and more in DCU now. I assume that with TCD being in the centre of Dublin, the cost of private student accommodation is even greater again.

We need to see control as well as more public student accommodation. There is an onus on both the Department and the higher education institutions themselves to provide student accommodation where they are also increasing student numbers. The proposal with which we are dealing, however, is about ensuring rent pressure zones are applied to student accommodation in the private sector, which is eminently sensible. Otherwise, private providers will be able to charge whatever the market allows them to. We have seen that grow exponentially over the past couple of years. As such, it is imperative to control it. Private providers will charge whatever they can get. We have heard the statistics on the increase thus far as well as on the projected increase in the number of extra places by 2024. That will happen and more students will come into the system. Unless something is done quickly, those who provide private accommodation will charge whatever they can get. Whatever they can get will be whatever hard-pressed parents and mature students paying for themselves can pay. The alternative is that people cannot go to college.

This is a serious issue, in particular in terms of ensuring that students and their families are not priced completely out of attending college if they are not lucky enough to live near a third level institution in the first place. Students who have to live away from home while they are in college face exorbitant rents which are likely to increase further if a stop is not put to this. The legislation is necessary. I commend Sinn Féin for moving it and I express the Labour Party’s support.

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