Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Sinn Féin group, I welcome our new Superintendent, Barry Ryan. He is very welcome here and I wish him every success in his role in the years ahead. On behalf of Sinn Féin, I also wish to extend our condolences to the Fianna Fáil family and Senator Davitt on the death of Damien O'Reilly. I also offer our condolences to everyone in the Labour Party on the death of Flor O'Mahony.

The lack of supply, much less affordable supply, of student accommodation has only worsened since the previous academic year. In 2018, the Government had a report that stated that by 2024, we would need an additional 21,000 student beds. Now we have learned from the Department that the current demand is in excess of 30,000 beds. In terms of university accommodation, this failure to meet demand means that the cost of education for young people and their families has only continued to increase. Apart from the University of Galway, all universities have increased the rent on student accommodation. Many have gone to the maximum 2% increase permitted. Dublin City University, for example, has gone up to €5,863 from €5,584. In University College Dublin, the cheapest private room to rent is now €7,767, reaching its highest ever level. In Trinity College, those staying in the complex on Printing House Square have to pay a total of €10,379. For many young people and their families, these prices are simply unfathomable. The lack of appropriate regulation of digs is of equal concern to young people and their families. Students far too often are faced with situations where they have little or no access to facilities, insufficient privacy and no recourse to the Residential Tenancies Board in cases of dispute.

We cannot continue to place the blame for the crisis in student accommodation on universities and private landlords. They are required to operate within the confines of a delivery model that is clearly broken. We need a new model of delivery of student accommodation that has affordability at its core. It is equally time to properly regulate digs. The Government should listen to young people and address this issue with the immediacy it deserves. I ask for a debate on student accommodation.