Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I support the Bill. It is very good and sensible legislation and I acknowledge the work of Deputies Farrell and Ó Broin, and the Labour Party will certainly support it.

I read the Minister of State's speech with interest and was taken by the fact he felt he had to reassure the market regarding the Bill. This is how I interpret his intervention when he stated:

The Government is concerned that any attempt to regulate ‘digs’ could well have a negative impact on the supply of this traditional and important source of accommodation for students and others. The impact on supply will need to be very carefully considered in tandem with legalities of the Bill.

He also stated: "I want to clearly reassure anyone who is providing ‘digs’ or planning on renting to a lodger, including students, in the coming months not to be deterred from doing so for fear of this Bill and any impending regulation of their homes."

I understand the Government wanting to maintain supply but what is at play with this legislation is simply about making the experience for the student a better one and instilling within that arrangement between the landlord - the person providing the accommodation - a set of very basic rules and regulations that are entirely sensible, humane at the very minimum and that make for, in the current housing crisis, a better experience for the student.

We can all quote chapter and verse examples of issues that have come to the attention of our constituency offices in respect of the exploitation of people who are in accommodation but all we have before us tonight is a piece of work that seeks to set out a set of guiding principles around how that relationship operates, to take the exploitation out of it and to make for a better experience for the student. That is entirely sensible and worthy of support.

When I was a student all of 30 years ago in Ollscoil na Gaillimhe, I paid 21 punts per week for accommodation on the west side of the city; imagine that. That was in the mid-1990s. A privately-owned complex in the city of Cork that is charging €450 per week for a room. That is €450 per week for a room in a privately-owned complex designed for students. In old money - and I stand corrected if I am wrong - that equates to approximately 350 punts. We are not talking about decimalisation here; we are talking about pre the introduction of the euro. Who, in the name of God, can afford to pay €450 per week for a room? We have left it absolutely and utterly to the market and this is why I mentioned the Minister of State's comments. Within government, there seems to be this idea of not doing anything that will spook the market. We need to get back to a set of core principles that ensures that the State, where possible, makes the investment and is a key stakeholder in providing for accommodation for students throughout the country.

I do not see why there is an impediment to that. The State is a major investor across so many different sectors. The State supports business to the tune of millions of euro through agencies such as Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, for instance. I can see no plausible reason the State could not be a major investor in a model that absolutely guarantees that a student and his or her family pay a fair price for the room and the facility they will live in for the duration of their years as a student.

I do not understand how any family can afford €450 per week; it is immoral. Even if the student is working, there is no way he or she can make that kind of wage during an average working week. It is absolutely impossible and requires either the student or their family taking on debt to meet that requirement.

I welcome the Bill. It is good legislation. I welcome the fact that so many stakeholders were involved in this Bill, particularly students themselves. It is a good piece of work. The Government should not be afraid of this Bill. In fairness to the Minister of State, he has accepted the Bill possibly needs some amendments and changes. That is fair enough. I take that point. I believe the Bill, at heart, seeks to make the student experience a better experience and to instil within it some very basic principles and rights that the student will have which are humane and based on common sense. That should not be opposed in any way.

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