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

The ever-increasing cost of rent creates an insurmountable financial barrier for many students. That is becoming increasingly obvious. In my constituency, there was a discussion on Midwest Radio today with students who are thinking about renting and doing up camper vans to allow them to go to the college of their choice. That is just plain wrong.

The Minister spoke about available payments and supports, such as the PUP, but the fact is that for the student population those supports will not be there from September. Will he ask the Minister, Deputy Harris, to intervene because he seems to be turning a deaf ear to this? Every time I ask him about fairness in regard to PUP payments for students, he pretends not to hear me. Many students are excluded from the Student Universal Support Ireland grant just because they availed of the PUP. That is having a knock-on effect on accommodation and what students can afford. I welcome the fact that the Government is acting on the Union of Students in Ireland Bill that was brought forward by Sinn Féin. I welcome it in terms of the 28-day notice and two months' rent provisions.

That will not do anything to retrospectively compensate the thousands of students across the country who were robbed last year. I share my colleague's concerns around the informal pressure that can be put on students and we need to be mindful of that. Will the Minister give consideration to that?

It is the Minister's responsibility to provide affordable accommodation and over a ten-year period where colleges were starved of funding, Fine Gael provided €87 million in public funds to private student accommodation in the form of tax breaks. Yet we see students forced out of colleges because they cannot afford the rent. Millions of euro in public money has been pumped into landlords, yet we do not have affordable accommodation.

Something has to be done about it and the Minister knows the solutions in terms of universities being able to access sustainable loans from the European Investment Bank, the Irish Strategic Investment Fund, the Council of Europe Development Bank and others. To avail of this finance and to cover repayments during the building phase, colleges need adequate core and capital funding budgets.

It is within the gift of the Government to sort out student accommodation. I plead with the Minister to do so. I welcome the Bill but much more needs to be done.

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