Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is a disgrace because from the sound of that response from the Minister, Deputy Harris's Department, he is just washing his hands of all of this. The Minister of State in his reply told us that the Minister, Deputy Harris, is "actively pursuing" the issue of securing affordable accommodation. He did not put any money in the budget to build that student accommodation. The Minister of State said the Government has extended the rent pressure zones for a further period. This is a 30% increase in the cost of that student accommodation, 30% which students simply cannot afford to pay. This will lock more people out of student accommodation at a time when we already know the number of students who are dropping out of third level education is growing. One of the reasons is the accommodation crisis. We have heard from so many students who have to commute huge distances because they simply cannot afford accommodation in their chosen college.

I would say to the Minister of State that it is simply not good enough to be telling us these kinds of things. We are talking about a cost of €283 per week for a room. It is insane for a student to be paying such a cost, or to be paying a cost of €258 per week either. That answer is simply not good enough.

The Government is a tenant in this particular building also. Is the Government going to be submitting anything to the RTB on that price increase, or is it happy with an increase of 30% without questioning it?

My second question is on the vulture funds. We have heard promises from the Minister but no action on the change from 39 weeks to 51 week leases, which so many student accommodation providers are talking about. These are the vulture funds which the Government has clearly welcomed in rather than building its own student accommodation.

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