Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Dublin City University is one of the top universities in the country. Located in Dublin North-West, it has a well-earned global reputation for both research and innovation. DCU has three academic campuses on the north side of the city located in Glasnevin and Drumcondra. It has 19,000 students studying there. Many of the students who go to DCU are from Dublin and, consequently, can travel from their homes to the college. The college offers on-campus accommodation at both the Glasnevin and the St. Patrick's campus to cater for full-time students and for first-year students in student residences. These students are considered the lucky ones and, like many other students in colleges and universities across Ireland, there are thousands more who have to rely on private rental accommodation. Every year around this time, desperation and panic sets in as students begin the process of looking for some sort of accommodation before the university year starts. The benchmark for accommodation is often set very low as students accept any sort of accommodation, no matter how bad it is or how crowded.

We have all heard the horror stories of students living in substandard accommodation or having to sleep on couches, in sleeping bags, on the floor, in overcrowded apartments or in shared houses. Many others rent a room at a family house, which can have its own problems. Due to the high demand for student accommodation, the chronic lack of properties available to rent and the lack of proper regulation in this sector, students are ripe for exploitation. There is some purpose-built student accommodation such as the Gateway Student Village accommodation and the Aspen Student Life accommodation in Ballymun. The vast majority of students, however, take what they can get and with that they are vulnerable to being exploited, to rents, overcrowding, a lack of privacy, poor accommodation and no proper legal protections. It is stressful enough studying for a degree without having to fear being evicted at a moment's notice without any recourse to a legal remedy.

There is an over-reliance on the private sector to provide student accommodation and this has led to a complete lack of affordability in such student accommodation. Also, students living in digs or rent-a-room situations have little or no rights as they face into the university year. They do so without any security of tenure. Students do not need these sorts of stresses and this can only negatively impact both their mental health and their studies. This Bill will help give security, certainty and protection to students and that is why the Government should support it.

See this speech in context