Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin believes that education is a basic and fundamental right that should be available to everyone on the basis of full equality. We believe there should be no barrier, such as contribution fees or any other charges, that holds back anybody who wants to access further education. However, lack of planning, funding and resourcing is having a real impact on young people, their education and the future career opportunities available to them. This lack of appropriate planning and investment is resulting in an increasingly two-tiered and classist education system whereby those who can afford the student contribution fees and extortionate rents can avail of further education. By contrast, as we have heard from others today, those who cannot afford them must either face long and often unsustainable daily commutes that impact both their education and experience of college life or they need to forgo third level education altogether. Unfortunately, more and more young people are being locked out of education.

One of the key factors is the contribution fees that many young people and their families are being asked to pay. When asked about the impact these fees are having on young people and their ability to access education, the Minister, Deputy Harris, has cited once-off measures that he and his Government have introduced. However, we all know that once-off measures are not long-term solutions. Most further education courses require a three-year commitment as a minimum. Young people and their families are not in a position to adequately plan their futures on the basis of annual ad hocmeasures. It is now October. Colleges have resumed and students are still waiting to hear what measures might be included in budget 2024. At a minimum, students and their families deserve the clarity that will allow them to make informed decisions on their education before the university term commences. In many ways, this is the easiest barrier to address as it simply requires Government to commit to a schedule of reduced fees in budget 2024 and the subsequent abolition of fees in 2024-25.

However, even if fees were abolished in the morning, it would still not address the issue of student accommodation. Again, others have raised this issue in the House today. This Government cannot continue to blame the student accommodation crisis on the universities or private landlords. They are required to operate within the confines of a delivery model which is clearly broken. We need a new model of delivery for student accommodation with affordability at its core. In 2018, a Government report stated that, by 2024, we would need an additional 21,000 student beds.We have now learned from the Department that the current level of demand is in excess of 30,000. This failure to meet demand means that costs for young people and their families are continuing to increase.

The provision of student-specific accommodation, while a welcome start, is not a resolution in and of itself. It is crucial that the accommodation be affordable. This begins with determining what is affordable in a student context and developing an affordable student accommodation model. Apart from the University of Galway, all universities have increased their rents for student accommodation. Many have opted for the maximum 2% increase that is permitted. For instance, first year students staying in DCU's Larkfield apartments have to pay €5,863, up from €5,584 last year. In UCD, the cheapest private room to rent is now €7,767, reaching its highest level ever. In Trinity College Dublin, those staying in the Printing House Square complex will have to pay a total of €10,379. These costs are on top of electricity deposits of up to €500, which are often required when availing of such on-campus accommodation. For many young people and their families, these prices are simply unfathomable and unaffordable.

The lack of appropriate regulation of the rent-a-room scheme or digs is of equal concern for young people and their families. Far too often, students are faced with situations where they have little to no access to facilities, insufficient privacy - they cannot have locks on their doors - and no recourse to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, in disputes. Combined with the absence of any requirement for a notice period, this creates a precarious situation for many young people, one that leaves them vulnerable to coercive action by landlords. The solution is not complex: listen to students and work with Sinn Féin on introducing legislation that provides regulation and protection for those renting rooms and digs.

We are now in a situation where 16% of students responding to the student survey have indicated they have considered dropping out of their courses solely on the basis of financial pressures. The Government must listen to our young people and address this issue with the immediacy it deserves. Budget 2024 cannot be another missed opportunity for the Government. The Government must act to address the increasingly two-tier and classist system that is developing in further education. Education is a basic and fundamental right that should be available to everyone on the basis of full equality. That begins with adequate funding and resourcing at Government level. It is only through providing this funding that we can begin to nourish future generations and discover the deep and wide-ranging well of ability and talent our young people possess.