Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I certainly agree that there is no excuse for universities jacking up rents to unaffordable levels. I was simply pointing out that if they are underfunded, they start to look for ways to increase revenue. They start to operate more like businesses and less like institutes of higher education. However, it is no excuse and the rents are often pushed down because students actually get out and protest about it. I commend the students who have done so recently.

There is a massive shortfall in the availability of affordable student accommodation. What is the Minister planning to do about this? The Union of Students of Ireland, USI, has asked for 30,000 additional affordable student beds by 2029. Is the Minister going to meet that demand? That is the sort of scale that is necessary. To refer to my earlier point, in a choice between hundreds of millions euro going into research and development tax breaks for some of the richest companies in the world or giving it to our universities to fund them properly, I know which one I would choose

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