Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak to this very important Bill. One of the biggest elephants in the room, and one of the biggest issues facing students who are seeking accommodation, is the need to increase the availability of affordable accommodation for students.

Increasing accommodation is the most effective way to provide real choice and options. The lack of student accommodation is very much linked to the lack of supply of housing in university and third level education towns throughout the country. It is also worth noting and offering congratulations to the Union of Students in Ireland, which has campaigned for the new measures contained in this Bill. It has been its campaign for this change that has brought it about.

While the new regulations have been designed primarily to help students who are seeking college accommodation in advance of the new academic year, the measures will also apply to all renters who are moving into new homes. As far back as 2017, the Government was urged to tackle rules around deposits and upfront payments, with some examples being highlighted over the years of private landlords asking prospective tenants for two months' rent as a deposit, as well as the first month's rent. That is, of course, mainly a practice that is used here in Dublin. It is only reasonable, right and proper that any property owner be entitled to ask for a deposit and for up to a month's rent in advance. Asking for more than that puts the person who needs the accommodation in the awful position of being priced out of the market for that property. That is wrong.

When we are having a debate such as this one, I hear some people professing that they represent the working man. We all know who those people are. They are the people who would not do a day's work to save their own lives. We are getting sick of hearing them speak about this working man that they are always talking about. Those people would have us believe that there is something wrong with the group of people who provide student accommodation and accommodation in the private sector. I wish to highlight that every one of those people pays tax of more than 50% on the money they earn and they are providing accommodation that the State is unable or unwilling to provide.

I wish to highlight that we need balance, but we definitely need more accommodation to be provided. There are a number of amazing factors at play in Ireland at the moment, including, for example, the fact that it is now impossible to build an apartment because it is not financially viable. One cannot come to a place like Dublin, Cork, Galway or Limerick and build an apartment and rent it out, because it quite simply does not make sense to do so. For a normal person wishing to buy such an apartment, he or she cannot afford it because the cost is so high due to the fact that the cost of building has risen steeply. It is an awful situation. In many cases, the price of timber and steel has gone up by 60% and 70% in the last year and a half. That is absolutely frightening. We desperately need to do more for people. However, knocking the very people who provide accommodation is not the way to do it. If we are going to rely on the State, we will be waiting a long time.

I, too, want to take particular issue with what went on at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis over the weekend. I refer to the Tánaiste-Taoiseach or Taoiseach-Tánaiste - it makes no difference what we call him. We can call him Taoiseach or Tánaiste. He is both of them any day of the week. He said that Fine Gael wants to build 40,000 homes and will do so. For God's sake, he was the Taoiseach already. They were in power for long enough. Why, in the name of God, did they not build the houses then? If they are going to be able to do it in the future, whey did they not do it in the past?

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