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

Today, third level students throughout the State are staging a walkout from lectures. I send solidarity and support to these students and their families. I wish to acknowledge the work done by the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, and all of the student unions. Students are weary and they are at their wits' end. This is not a decision they have taken lightly. They have been forced into it by the Government's abject failure to stand up for students. Students are very much under pressure. Too many are sleeping in cars or on sofas or commuting exhausting journeys because there simply is not enough accommodation; PhD researchers are pushed to the brink of their finances without a living wage or decent conditions and Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grants are in dire need of reform.

The student housing crisis should shame the Government. The whole calamity in this regard is that the number of students who need accommodation is entirely predictable. It is not good enough for Ministers to act surprised every September. Indeed, it is apt that the walkout today was at 11:11 a.m. because the Tánaiste's party has been in government for 11 years and the problem has got worse after each of those years.

Despite all of the handwringing of Government Deputies, this year's budget is the third consecutive budget from this Government without an allocation for student accommodation. The Fine Gael Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has passed the buck to the Fianna Fáil Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage - a Minister who has not even met student representatives to discuss the crisis. Someone needs to take responsibility. Students are paying the price each and every day.

Let me tell the Tánaiste what the Government's failure to deliver student accommodation means for ordinary students. One student told me that being unable to secure accommodation has meant the student must commute two and a half hours each way. This student's mental health has suffered immensely due to anxiety. Another student told us of a six-hour commute each day to reach UCD from Offaly and that students knows of lads travelling from Longford daily. The student is in final year but cannot face it and will defer. A PhD researcher said that, out of the €1,500 per month stipend, €1,000 each month goes towards accommodation and that researcher is left eating beans on toast at every meal. The researcher's mental health has been severely impacted and they are considering quitting their programme and leaving the country.

The housing crisis the Government has caused is devastating people's lives and is impacting on student education. However, it does not have to be this way. We need capital investment to unlock the 3,000 student college-owned beds that the Government has allowed to sit on the shelf. This must happen without delay. Sinn Féin allocated €81 million in additional capital investment to get these shovel-ready projects on site and under construction. Will the Tánaiste commit to allocating the necessary investment?

Students and parents must be recognised as renters like any other and, yet, they are being unfairly excluded from the rent tax rebate. Will the Tánaiste find a way to include them in the rent tax credit? PhD researchers are also excluded because they are denied worker's status. Will the Tánaiste end this unfairness and include them in this rebate? Students have been failed for far too long on the watch of the Tánaiste's Government. Will he end this unfairness and tackle the student crisis, once and for all, to let the students of this country get on with their education and careers?

Too many people are being excluded. When I talk to universities and colleges, they tell me about the hundreds of students who are on their accommodation waiting lists. That does not even include the students who have not even left their homes or have decided to defer until next year. This is totally wrong on many levels. Students need the support of this Government.

See this speech in context