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

I thank the Minister. It is vitally important that these projects are progressed sooner rather than later. The Minister knows I have pushed for a long time for public funding for student accommodation because it is integral to students participating in third level education, in particular students from rural areas.

How is the Minister making sure that the beds will be affordable once they are available? We need to make sure that it is just that a number are ring-fenced for SUSI students or whoever; they should all be affordable. That needs to be the bottom line when money is invested.

My colleague has a question on the rent tax credit. The current situation is not good enough. The requirement for landlords to be registered with the residential tenancies board, RTB, excludes many students. Students are being punished because their landlords are not registered with the RTB. We need to tease that out in another question.

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