Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Government must bear some responsibility for this as to the institutions, the late timetables and announcements. Students are struggling immensely, emotionally, financially and socially. The anger and sense of injustice they feel is really palpable. We are asking them to adhere to level 5 restrictions. We need to bring them with us and to show solidarity with them. Level 5 counts as use prevention.

Surely that means we must put in place measures to ensure they are given fair play. We cannot be observers of this escalating situation. The Government must step in with measures that will ensure students get refunded for accommodation we are preventing them from using. It really is time to act. All higher level accommodation providers must be instructed and enabled to allow for leases to be terminated without incurring fees and penalties and full refunds to be issued to those who request them. If that means introducing emergency legislation then that is what needs to be done. The aggregate amount of money that is being handed over to landlords for something that students and families will never use is desperate.

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