Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

No. The Department will consider and will have regard to absolutely everything. One of the things we do not want to do, by virtue of the introduction of any measure, is for people are already participating in the scheme to feel threatened. In many cases these are retired people and will have to make a declaration of interests. I stayed in digs myself when I was in college and the person I was staying with was retired and derived an income from that arrangement. It has come back into vogue much more in recent years than it was. It was gone in many cases. As I said a while ago, there are 2,200 beds available today. With the voluntary scheme that is in place, we are anxious to engage with student unions, the representatives of the universities, colleges and everybody else to ensure the standards are appropriate. We do not want people in inappropriate settings, but by the same token, I have to be very conscious of the fact this is housing legislation which my colleague, the Minister for housing, will have to have regard to in the first instance. We do not want a situation where we would face a cliff edge, and that is a very obvious concern we would have.

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