Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Green Party is happy to support the Bill before the House this evening. I commend Sinn Fein and Deputy Ó Broin on bringing it forward. This Bill seeks to expand the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016 to apply to students living in student accommodation. It is not a complicated issue and seeks to extend rights to students, which they should not have to demand, the basic rights of any tenant be included in rent pressure zones and have access to the Residential Tenancies Board.

This legislation is sorely needed as in recent months we have seen several instances of enormous and frankly exploitative rent hikes in student accommodation. In DCU, students in Shanowen Square last March were faced with the announcement of a 27% increase in rent for the academic year 2018-19. Earlier this year students in Cúirt na Coiribe in National University Galway, NUIG, were faced with an increase of up to €1,000 for 2018-19. That hike came in the middle of examinations, leaving students with huge decisions to make in a very short space of time if they wanted to secure accommodation for next September. The level of stress and anxiety this caused for students in the middle of an examination period is entirely and absolutely unfair in dealing with any tenants. To put it simply, students are being exploited. We, and many other parties on the left, have sought greater security of tenure for tenants and for more stringent caps on rent. It is remarkable to think that none of these might be applicable to students without this much-needed legislation.

The lack of investment in student support has resulted in third level institutions pushing more and more of the burden onto students. We saw this in the Trinity College Dublin protests at supplemental examination fees. It is not right or fair and something needs to be done because students are feeling too great a burden through lack of investment and are being forced to carry the cost. I welcome this move to bring students further into the fight to ensure greater rights for tenants of all descriptions and I call on the Government to move quickly to support this Bill’s passage through the Oireachtas or, if there are definitional issues to be addressed, as the Minister of State has indicated, that it moves quickly to incorporate it into its own legislation to be enacted as soon as possible.

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