Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government promised last year that there would not be any emergency accommodation. It is still happening. The same is going to happen with student housing. The Tánaiste is promising everything but in September and October, students and their families will be faced with a bill every month of €1,400 or €1,500. The Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 2018 was promised this session but it has not been introduced. He can utter all the words he wants, all the promises he wants, lay out all the action plans he wants and issue all the self-congratulatory reports he wants but come September and October, what will he say to students, their parents and their families who will be faced with paying €1,400 every month for student accommodation?

There is no sense in telling people to turn down a place at a university or third level institution or to turn down the opportunity of education because an apartment will be available for them next year. Next year may be too late for them. The Tánaiste could take action now to recognise the urgency of the situation and to say to those providing student accommodation that students are not cash cows. The places the Tánaiste has mentioned are being provided by private operators at exorbitant, profitable rates. They are making profits on the backs of Irish students while the Governments stands back and talks about it.

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