Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputies Mairéad Farrell and Eoin Ó Broin on introducing this legislation. The Rental Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 2024 seeks to establish some form of contract between the householder and the tenant renting the room in the house. I have first-hand experience of this. Last year I had three in college together and this coming year we will have two going to college. I am well aware of the high costs involved and also the huge struggle in the first place to find accommodation. That is the first consideration for everyone who has a child going to college in any part of the country no matter where they go. Whether they come to capital city in Dublin here, Galway, Limerick or wherever, they have the same problem in trying to find accommodation.

Many students go to college with a friend group and they want to rent a house somewhere together with that friend group. The problem we have is that the standard rental sector for everybody is putting enormous pressure on that. Houses that used to be available for students are no longer available and other families are now renting them on a longer-term basis with landlords getting higher rents for them. Such properties have moved out of the situation and the only option for many students is to go into digs. Often that can work out very well, as has been said, and in most cases, it works very well. Most of the landladies look after them very well and in many cases become a kind of second mother to some of them. That is absolutely perfect and fine but there are instances where things do not work out well. There are instances where some students might not keep to the standard rules that they have at home. They may let their hair down when they go to college, leading to difficulties there.

We need to have some form of agreement in place to make sure that everyone knows what is expected of them, that they are supposed to pay the rent on time, that they are not supposed to act the blackguard too much - except maybe during rag week when they might get away with it. For the rest of the time at least, they need to have some sense of the responsibility they have as tenants.

The person renting out the room also has responsibilities to provide the proper kind of accommodation. Such people, for instance, need to make sure that there is heat on in their rooms. I have heard that very often in the wintertime, there can be problems with that. There are issues with access to kitchens and cooking facilities. This is about trying to formalise something which will provide for both, which will ensure that everybody can be respectful to one another. When it is written down on paper, there is a contract in place and they have recourse to a governing body it puts everybody in the right place.

I welcome that the Government does not intend to oppose this legislation. I would hope that it would not just not oppose it but would actually embrace it to make sure that this will be put in place for everybody. We need to recognise that this is becoming a growing sector. The fact that there is such a large tax-free allowance in place for people who rent out a room of €14,000 year also puts a responsibility on the State to ensure that it gets involved in this and that there is fair pay for everyone involved.

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