Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleagues, Teachtaí Ó Broin and Funchion, on bringing forward this important legislation. Shortly before I was elected I was involved in a dispute with University College Dublin, UCD. It related to a car park and the introduction of car parking charges. At the time we were considering the demands placed on the car park by the students and the staff. It became apparent during the course of that dispute that students were in some instances sleeping in their cars because they could not afford accommodation. Students who could not afford accommodation in Dublin were travelling to college in the early hours of the morning, parking their cars on the premises and sleeping in their cars before lectures. It is not easy to be a student. My daughter is a student in UCD and it is tough enough. Many students have to work and study, and they want to do their best. On top of that, they are now falling victim to parasitic landlords. I commend the students on their activism. It is regrettable they have to take time away from their studies to protest, as they did in DCU and NUIG, but it is not surprising they have to do that because so much that can be achieved has to be achieved through protest, given the make-up and functioning of this Government.

I urge support for this Bill on the basis that if we do not show our solidarity with those students, we send them the message that we think it is okay for them to be exploited, for their parents to be crucified to pay exorbitant rents, and for those students who cannot afford rents to continue to sleep in their cars. That is really the choice; we stand with them or we stand against them.

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