Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Before I start my contribution, republicans in Dundalk are now saying farewell to Francie Doran, a man from the North. Like him, many people from Belfast settled in Dundalk due to the conflict and they played a significant role in republican and community activism. My thoughts are with Marion and his family and I thought I needed to make mention of it.

I commend Deputies Ó Broin and Conway-Walsh and the USI on dealing with an issue that concerns giving protection to students. We have already heard it mentioned frequently here that students, because of the pandemic, found themselves in a difficult situation regarding huge deposits and being unable to get their money back. This Bill will provide protections regarding a decent time to present notice. It will ensure protection regarding refunds and mean we will not have the awful scenario of people having to put a deposit of three, six or nine months' rent money together to give to a landlord to ensure they have accommodation to enable them to attend college.

There are already many obstacles in respect of who can access SUSI grants and many other things that happened long before that issue. Many interventions are needed from the State to rectify all these issues. However, this is a simple Bill and I welcome the support of the Government for it and for the tenants concerned. We just need to ensure that this happens.

In my town of Dundalk, we are delighted we have Dundalk Institute of Technology, DKiT . We must, however, deal with the overall housing crisis. People who work in companies such as PayPal can bunch together. We are talking then about people who can avail of the housing assistance payment, HAP, those who cannot and students all fighting for a limited amount of rental accommodation and all paying high rents. We are talking about rents of €1,000, €1,200 and €1,400.

I have spoken to the Minister about that previously. We must deal with the entire issue. We must deal with the issues that Louth County Council is facing in respect of land banks. I welcome the support in dealing with the issue in respect of students but we must deliver on the housing crisis across the board.

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