Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Students are facing enough financial hardships under the Government. Between registration fees and the cost of living, travel and rent, students and their parents are under significant financial pressure. Free education has been eroded bit by bit, mainly through registration and other fees. Ten years into austerity, we have reached the point at which the cost of third level education is acting as a deterrent for some students, with rent a significant contributor to that.

Most ordinary people – workers, families, people in the private rented sector and those who want to buy their own homes – are struggling due to the chaotic housing market that the Government has created. For example, rents in Louth have increased by 13.5% in the past year. This is outrageous and shows that the Government's approach to housing has been a failure. The housing list has gone off the charts altogether. In Louth alone, more than 4,500 people are on the waiting list, many of whom have been waiting for upwards of ten years. Homelessness is at an all-time high.

Students are no different. The scramble for accommodation every summer is beyond ridiculous at this point, and Fine Gael is seven years in government. Not enough units are available in the rental market for workers or students, and student-specific housing is scarce and expensive and is not included in the flimsy protections that exist for tenants. Dundalk Institute of Technology has more than 5,000 students, many of whom are under severe pressure seeking affordable accommodation, yet the Government is still refusing to include Dundalk in a RPZ.

While we would like significant improvements in the overall protections for tenants, the Bill would at least bring those living in student-specific accommodation into line with other renters and offer them that basic protection. The Minister of State does not need us to tell him time and again that student accommodation is at crisis point, with a gross undersupply in the housing and rental sectors and extortionate rents in student accommodation across our cities. The Bill aims to give students in specific accommodation protection under the RTB and inclusion in RPZs.

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