Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Fine Gael has been in power for more than ten years. Fianna Fáil has either been in government with or has propped up Fine Gael in power for more than five years and neither has built anything like social and affordable housing, the results and consequences of which we see every day. The latest example is the student accommodation crisis. This afternoon, I spoke to Aisling O'Mahony, president of the Munster Technological University Cork student union. She told me that because of the accommodation crisis, students are passing on renting accommodation, staying at home with parents and commuting not ten, 15 or 20 miles, but really long distances, to college. Many students are trekking to Bishopstown every day from west Cork and other counties, including Kilkenny, Kerry, Tipperary and Waterford, spending three, four or five hours per day in cars because of the housing crisis for which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are responsible. I wonder if the Taoiseach, when addressing the United Nations on the climate crisis and carbon emissions, will mention the students in Ireland who are forced to drive around in cars for five hours every day.

Before the summer, the Dáil passed legislation which provided for students to pay rent to student accommodation centres on a monthly rather than annual basis. Is the Minister aware that these centres are undermining that legislation by offering two payment options, that is, an annual payment and a monthly payment, but with the latter working out to be more expensive over the course of the year? This practice, I am told, is widespread. What steps does the Minister intend to take to block it? On Thursday next, students from across the country will meet outside the gates of Leinster House to protest the lack of action from the Minister and the Government on the student accommodation crisis. I look forward to joining them. I hope that actions such as this come to be seen as small steps towards the building of a mass housing movement in this country that will sweep Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael from power and challenge the rule of the capitalist market, the root cause of this housing crisis. Sin é.

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