Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House for the second time today. We will be charging him rent next. I commend Senator Moynihan and the Labour Party and I support their Bill, which is very welcome. It deals with one aspect of the student housing crisis but it is an important one. The proposal in the Bill to restrict the possibility of changing purpose-built student accommodation to short-term lets or short-term holiday lets is one I am glad the Government is supportive of. It is a proposal we need to progress.

I am a parent of third level students so I know the demographic very well, warts and all. I met with the Union of Students in Ireland. I commend it on the work it has done, not just in recent times. Since the Government was formed more than a year ago, it has engaged very constructively and the Government has worked with it and taken on many of its suggestions. I have spoken to third level students outside of my constituency of Dublin Central, where for the past ten years it has been very hard and very galling to see, as others have mentioned, new buildings being built to a very high standard and quality, animating and putting into productive use what were derelict sites. It is, however, so detached from the local housing need and so devoid of any consideration of it, in addition to being out of reach of the students it is supposed to be serving, that it is very hard to accept it. It is something I have complained at length about.

On the pressures, Senator Sherlock mentioned there was a student housing crisis 20 years ago. There probably was and I am not disputing that, but what has made it so much worse this year is the undersupply of housing over recent years, the unaffordability of these purpose-built operated units and the Covid pandemic. Where families would previously have offered digs, because of Covid, that option has either been reduced or removed entirely from the market. That is compounding the crisis. I welcome what the Minister of State and the Government have done in terms of the €600 million in rent support payments and the direct supports for students with the increase of SUSI and hardship grants, which are very important. The work the Government has done in reducing the upfront payments for students and the 28-day notice period is very important, as is the money that has been given to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, to ensure the rent caps are legally enforced and inspections are taking place, and to local authorities for inspections.

Housing for All will deliver over the next number of years, with €20 billion assigned to it and 300,000 homes as a target, but it will take time. I will draw attention to the commitment given in Housing for All to allow technical universities to use the land available to them to reduce the cost and to deliver not-for-profit, purpose-built student accommodation. That is very welcome and it is important we support all the third level institutions to use the facility they have been provided with to access funding through the Housing Finance Agency and start to deliver purpose-built student accommodation at a not-for-profit point.

In the short term, has the Minister of State met with the CEO of Dublin City Council? I appreciate that the applications that have been made for change of use concern a small number of developments, but whatever the number is, it is unacceptable if they are being granted. Has the Minister of State met with the CEO of Dublin City Council and will he advise us on what he is saying on that?

The circular has been issued and that is very important. The tax treatment, which was mentioned, that was in place, originally required that students came from a list of predefined third level institutions before it would apply. Is that being enforced and will Revenue supply us with information on that? The vacant property tax this Government has committed to and that will be delivered through Housing for All should apply to any of these purpose-built student accommodations that are priced at a point way beyond our students. I do not know if the Minister of State can speak about that, but it is important.

The work we have done on Housing for All to ensure the housing needs assessment will be completed by the end of November by each local authority needs to be respected.Manners need to be put on these developers and operators. They need to either reduce their prices and make their properties available or we need to tax them for that vacancy. It is immoral to have a student housing crisis in our cities when there are purpose-built, vacant properties available to them. I know the Minister of State has also met with the Minister, Deputy Harris, and I would be interested if he could update the House on the Minister's initiatives in this respect.