Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

We are discussing the issue of student accommodation and the rip-off of students by unscrupulous landlords. The Minister of State, Deputy Mitchell O’Connor, acknowledges the need for change but states we must proceed with extreme caution and that we have a difficult balancing act. I would argue that we must proceed with extreme urgency and must rebalance the respective rights decisively in favour of those students who currently face quite shocking levels of exploitation. I will give some examples from Cork city to illustrate precisely what I am talking about.

Is the Minister of State aware that this year, at least three students of the Cork Institute of Technology, CIT, study by day but sleep in their cars at night because they cannot afford the rip-off rents being charged by the landlords in the locality? One sleeps in one's car, gets up early in the morning, goes into the gym, showers and brushes one's teeth. One then goes and does a day’s study and whatever one is doing in the evening, after which one goes back to sleep in one's car. I refer to not one student but at least three students.

Is the Minister of State aware, for example, that in the suburb of Bishopstown, Cork, where the Cork Institute of Technology is situated, some rents are a little bit lower? The reason for this is that the bedrooms in the houses have been partitioned, not into spaces for five or six students, but for nine, ten, 11, 12, 13, 14 or 15 students. There are 15 partitioned spaces in one house and rent of €400 per month for each space being charged. There are at least 25 such houses. Many of them are owned by one landlord. If there are between nine and 15 students in each of those houses, that is more than 200 and possibly not far off 400 students. The landlords have tried to comply with the law - to avoid being got at - by operating in the same way as a hostel would operate but this is completely immoral. Someone who spoke to me today about that situation stated that one would not put an animal in those houses and yet those are the conditions for some CIT students in 2018. I have plenty of other examples here but I do not want to eat into Deputy Boyd Barrett’s time.

There must be not extreme caution but extreme urgency and a real rebalancing of rights. The rights that exist for other tenants should exist for students and be extended beyond that as well for both sections.

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