Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Deputy's sincerity on this, and I will work with her on it. I have talked to the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, the UCD students' union and many students about this. As I said in our previous exchange, this is about getting this right. We need to make sure that every student and homeowner goes into this with their eyes wide open. If someone rents a room in a house, the homeowner does not have the right to open the door and check that the room is tidy. They are not the student's mother and the student has to be given notice. What we are doing as soon as today is publishing a draft licence agreement on websites in colleges that will show students and homeowners what should be best practice, and what people should sign up for. That is a first step.

I have an open mind on the issue of regulation. I do, truthfully, but I want to get it right. As with the Deputy, I do not want to end up reducing supply. We had approximately 2,500 rooms to rent on college websites as recently as last Friday. At a time when students are looking for accommodation, I want to make it easy. I know there are older people, some of whom I have heard them in the media, renting out a spare room in their homes. I know it is working quite well. I do not want to make it an overly burdensome issue and I know Deputy Farrell does not either. I am very happy to look at legislation with the Deputy but the draft licence agreement is a start and we are starting that now.

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