Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I knew that Senator Bannon would mention discrimination with regard to County Longford. I sympathise with his point about students and it is an issue I have raised in this House on a number of occasions. The Minister of State may differ from me in this but that is no harm. One cannot blame the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government or the Department of Education of Science for the lack of both campus and off-campus accommodation in our universities and institutes of technology. This matter must be addressed and I have made the point that some universities have large land banks which could be used to build more student accommodation.

The Minister of State referred to the hype that surrounds the issue of accommodation for students and a lot of this is generated by the ritual of queuing for newspapers and scanning the accommodation advertisements. I cannot understand why the colleges should not be able to provide students with information on accommodation vacancies instead of this situation of queues and mad scrambles around the city or town to view the accommodation. While we agree that rents in general are decreasing, I have seen no such decrease in the area of third level student accommodation. Many parents to whom I have spoken agree with me on this. It is a strange situation.

I welcome the initiative regarding long term accommodation for rent supplement tenants. This legislation is a core element in this regard. Perhaps the Minister of State might outline the plans for those who are in accommodation for 18 months or longer. The private rented sector has an important role to play in assisting people who are in accommodation for more than 18 months. This does not apply to students but to those who would like more security of tenure and a better system for attaining accommodation than the payment of rent supplement.