Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I support the legislation and thank Senator Moynihan, in particular, and the entire Labour Party group. Students are another cohort of the population who are victims of the housing crisis. Costs are so high that students and their families are hard-pressed to fund accommodation, when they can find it. Other students commute vast distances to college. I know that is the case in the west of Ireland. In many cases, they sleep on couches during the week to carry out their education. Clare Austick, the president of USI, has come from NUIG and is passionate and speaks well on this issue. She states that, while there is much talk about barriers to education, one of the greatest access issues at the moment is accommodation. It has become a barrier to many students, especially those who do not live in the cities and towns of their chosen third level options. Housing availability and cost act as a constraint to many sections of our population but perhaps one of the most worrying is the effect that is having on our young people. Commuting is onerous, inefficient and, importantly, it reduces the third level experience of our students, who can no longer partake fully in college life as they might have done and expand the realm of their experience beyond course work. Covid has had a devastating impact on our young people but as normality begins to return, the housing crisis will continue to negatively affect students in terms of financial hardship, mental health and their ability to flourish.

It is extremely worrying that planning permissions for change of use have been granted by planning authorities to reduce the number of units available for our students. The recent circular from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage should help to address this. The Government has introduced or promised a number of initiatives to help students, including increasing SUSI grants, thresholds and student assistance fund, promised legislation for technical universities so they can access Housing Finance Agency funding and new laws regarding deposit and notice periods for students. We know demand is set to rise so this needs to be a central priority so our young people are not curtailed at this crucial period for their future success. The projections are a rise of 30,000 students between 2014 and 2024. Change of use permission is specifically addressed in the national student accommodation strategy. It can only happen if a student need is no longer there.

The Bill raises another important issue regarding our planning authorities. We have seen An Bord Pleanála is willing to give planning permission for the likes of co-living developments to go ahead despite a Government ban on this type of accommodation. An Bord Pleanála has said it has granted the permission where planning applications were before the board in advance of the Government ban. Even still, the rulings seem to fly in the face of Government policy. Independence in the planning process was an important step forward in Ireland, given many of the political corruption controversies we faced in planning in the past.However, independence of decision-making is not meant to be divorced from Government policy. Are planning authorities to be allowed to fly in the face of national policy in the name of independence? What, if any, cognisance, do they take of the explicit changes in Government policy, which we have clearly laid down? This is why we must examine whether legislation is the appropriate way to do this. An Bord Pleanála and local authorities must heed the circular but they could, and should, have heeded the student accommodation strategy before that. Many people are asking how we are we supposed to solve the housing crisis if our planning authorities are becoming a law unto themselves. Government policy is clear. How do we ensure it is carried through?

What we have laid down in the affordable housing Bill is the principle that houses should be more than houses; they should be homes. This includes the community around them and who all of us want living around us. We would much rather it be young people rather than people who come for a week or a few days adding to that lack of community. We must have intergenerational communities and this includes our young people. I very much support this Bill.