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

Not to point out the obvious, but we do not own the accommodation. In most of the cases, it is private. In Dublin, for instance, at the end of May 2024, the data that the universities provided themselves, as well as for digs accommodation for Maynooth, shows that there were 140 rooms for Trinity, 228 rooms for UCD, 217 for DCU, and 174 for Maynooth. It behoves all Deputies to recognise the fact that there is an issue but many things have been done. The Deputy never addressed the substantial tax changes made in the last budget or the fact that when he was Minister, Deputy Harris made substantial changes to SUSI eligibility. He never addressed the fact that SUSI was changed considerably for four consecutive budgets by Deputy Harris when he was Minister in the Department. He never addressed the legislation, which I hope he will support, which the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, will bring in. We know there is a problem but we have done an awful lot. The glass is not half empty.

To create this impression that there is nothing going on is not fair to the officials in the Department, the universities themselves or the parents of families who take in students, as they did for me and others. The Deputy is actually being a bit disingenuous.

With regard to Deputy Durkan’s point, I do not have the data available to me in a tabular form broken down by each of the local authority areas, but I will get that for the Deputy. I will also get information for him about which are due to expire because that is probably the most important thing. There may be planning permissions that are due to expire that can add substantially to this. We need help from the private sector. Some political parties believe the private sector has no role here. I do not believe that. I believe the private sector has a really important part to play here, such as by bringing people into their own homes or renting houses to them. I do not think it should be vilified. I will get the data for the Deputy.

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