Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, is very welcome to House.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I thank the Acting Chairperson, all Senators, and everybody behind the scenes for facilitating debate today on this urgent legislation in Seanad Éireann before the summer recess.

This Bill will amend the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to provide in the case of student specific accommodation, SSA, tenancies or licences for arrangements to: permit an advance payment of rent exceeding an amount equivalent to one month’s rent, only where a person is paying both rent and tuition fees to the same relevant provider, for example, a public or private education provider; limit the duration of such a tenancy or licence, other than at the request of the prospective tenant or licensee, to not more than 41 weeks; apply Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, sanctions to improper conduct by a landlord or licensor for exceeding that duration of 41 weeks; provide for the referral of disputes to the RTB where a landlord or licensor requests or requires a student to enter an SSA tenancy or licence that exceeds a duration of 41 weeks; and enable a fixed-term tenant or licensee of student specific accommodation to serve a notice of termination during the period from 1 May to 1 October, inclusive, in any year whether or not the landlord or licensor has failed to comply with any obligations of the tenancy or licence.

My Government colleagues and I have noted with alarm the number of private SSA providers that have moved exclusively to 51-week tenancies or licences. This is not desirable or affordable for the vast majority of students and their families, who rightly wish to pay for accommodation only during the academic term. In addition, a number of private SSA providers are not operating within the spirit of the Residential Tenancies Act insofar as it restricts the amount of any advance rent payment and of any deposit that can be required to be paid upfront. Some private SSA providers are operating booking portals that seek payments of amounts that exceed those that can be legally required under the RTA to secure a tenancy or licence agreement. I urge SSA providers to immediately amend their booking portals to seek and require only lawful upfront payments.

Section 19B of the RTA restricts the amount that a tenant is required to pay upfront to a landlord or SSA licenser by way of a deposit or an advance rent payment to secure a tenancy or SSA licence, that is, any deposit cannot exceed one month's rent, and any advance rent payment cannot exceed one month's rent. A restriction of the equivalent of one month's rent is also placed on the amount that a tenant or SSA licensee is obliged to pay as a regular advance rent payment.

The pressure on students and their families to secure student-specific accommodation is resulting in upfront payments being made to private SSA providers that far exceed those that can be legally required. This practice impedes access to education and flies in the face of the legislation. We must act swiftly to safeguard students from creating SSA tenancies or licences that exceed the academic term or making excessive upfront payments to secure tenancies or licences.

As the House will appreciate, the Government is very active in increasing the supply of student-specific accommodation to help alleviate the rental pressures in that sector and throughout the wider rental market and to reduce rents. Under Housing for All, the Government has committed to improve the supply and affordability of rental accommodation and security of tenure for renters, including students. Work is ongoing with higher education institutions to ensure that more accommodation is built on and off campus, using cost rental and other models. Housing for All provides that the Government support technological universities to develop purpose-built student accommodation where such a requirement exists, through access to appropriate funding.

I will now outline the provisions of the Bill, which contains seven sections.

Sections 1 and 7 contain standard provisions.

Section 2 amends section 19B of the principal Act to clarify that a person cannot seek or require an advance rent payment that exceeds one month's rent. A new section 19B(3A) provides that a student-tenant may agree to make an advance rent payment of greater than one month's rent only where such a payment is part of a combined payment, in respect of rent for accommodation and tuition fees, to the same relevant provider, within the meaning of the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act 2012, which includes both public and private education providers.

Section 3 inserts a new section 19C into the principal Act to ensure that students cannot be requested or required to pay for student-specific accommodation during the summer months. SSA tenancies or licences will be limited to a maximum of 41 weeks. A student can, however, request and agree with an SSA provider to rent for longer.

Section 4 amends section 58 of the principal Act to allow students who are bound to a fixed-term SSA tenancy or licence to serve a 28-day notice of termination, NOT, from 1 May to 1 October each year, whether or not the SSA landlord or licenser has failed to comply with any tenancy or licence obligation.

Section 5 amends section 78 of the principal Act to include a contravention of the new 41-week restriction as a matter that can be referred to the RTB for dispute resolution.

Section 6 amends Schedule 2 to the principal Act to clearly provide that anyone who seeks or requires payments in contravention of section 19B of the principal Act or who requests or requires a tenancy or licence duration that exceeds 41 weeks is engaging in "improper conduct" and liable to sanction by the RTB. A sanction may comprise a financial penalty of up to €15,000, payment of RTB investigation costs up to €15,000 and-or a written caution.

The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science will engage in an awareness campaign following the enactment of this legislation to ensure that students, parents, SSA providers and those working in the sector are aware of the new laws. The RTB will also provide relevant information to the sector. The Department has already notified SSA providers of the publication of this Bill and requested that its measures be adopted without delay in respect of new and existing tenancies and licences. Today I call on SSA providers to contact individual students with existing tenancies or licences and update the terms of their agreements in line with the provisions of this Bill. I also call on providers to create only tenancies or licences that align with this Bill from this point forward. The Bill will ensure that providers treat students, their customers, in a fair and respectful manner.

The Bill before the House is balanced and takes into account the legal advices of the Attorney General. I believe that the Bill strikes the right balance and I call on SSA providers to recognise that it is simply wrong to charge students for accommodation during the summer months. It is wrong to ask students to pay far greater upfront payments than is lawful. Other renters pay no more than one month's rent in advance, and that is the law. The Government is fully committed to ensuring that the Residential Tenancies Acts are implemented and applied in the sector, in accordance with the intentions and the spirit of the Houses of the Oireachtas. Student-specific accommodation was brought under the remit of these Acts in 2019 for good reasons: to protect students and control their rents and to provide recourse to the RTB's dispute resolution service for both parties. I commend the Bill to the House.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House. This is a concise Bill. As he said, it is in seven sections. It is fair and balanced and has my full support. I apologise in advance; the Oireachtas audit committee is having an important meeting and I am a member of it so will have to leave. I flag now my full support for all sections of the Bill. There are a number of asks on our schedule today. One is to consider all Stages of this Bill, which has has my full support. Immediately after this is a motion regarding the earlier signature by the President of the Bill. Again, I indicate my full support for that.

Why do I support and welcome this Bill? It is fair, equitable, balanced and reasonable. It has to be noted that the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage considered a request by the Minister to waive pre-legislative scrutiny of this legislation and we did so unanimously. To be fair to the Department, it gave us an overview. It is concise, simple, easy to read and easy to understand, and the motivation behind it is clear. I thank the Department for that. We considered the request and waived our right to have pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill. There was close co-operation between the committee and the the Department, and that is important.

I welcome this Bill, which will legislatively ensure that student-specific accommodation leases are aligned to the academic year. That is what the Minister of State has said and that is really important. It is also important that we improve tenancy rights for students specifically because they have specific needs. No one needs to be lectured on the importance of affordable, reasonable and appropriate accommodation, particularly in the universities in the bigger cities, where it is very expensive. Part of this greater debate has to be the roll-out of more accommodation specific to students. That is a real challenge for all campuses. Under the legislation, student accommodation will follow the traditional, standard, September-to-May, up-to-41-weeks academic year, unless - and this is an important point to make - the student himself or herself requests a tenancy in excess of 41 weeks. That too is permitted, so we need to be clear that this is not a blanket ban. If there is a mutual arrangement, and that is the requirement of the student, that can be exercised. Students, parents and guardians are paying very large rents, and any of them I have talked to and in the emails I have received, they very much welcome this, which is an important point.

Student representative bodies and parents and guardians of students have welcomed the Bill. Many students, as the Minister of State will know, since he is from a rural constituency, return to rural constituencies. Many go back to their farmlands. They help out in farm and agricultural practices. Many take up work in other parts of the country; indeed, they may go outside the country for work. Many of our students want to work. They understand the dignity of work and get work experience but they also supplement their income. They may have tuition fees or additional needs as students. That is to be supported and it is admirable. It is important that students have the right to return home.

To return to your home base and then find you are still tied into a tenancy agreement in some other part of the country and paying rent is clearly not right and proper and this proposed legislation seeks to address this issue. The practice of paying rent for accommodation that people are not staying in is ludicrous and I am glad this point has been taken on board. Students should not be forced to have to pay for accommodation when they are not living in it. That is an important point in this Bill.

Housing for All included various commitments in relation to the long-term policy of developing student accommodation. We have other demands on housing. I am a realist and pragmatist and not a hurler on the ditch. The reality is that we need to refocus and double down on our commitments, whether they are to public private partnerships or synergies, to enable us to build additional capacity for student accommodation. There is a financial burden and need to remove it. We have to address any impediment that frustrates people in pursuing further education. This Bill does that.

It is important to make the point that students will have recourse to the Residential Tenancies Board. We had its interim director, Owen Keegan, in and he made this point in respect of the RTB. If people have specific queries about their accommodation or landlords, wish to refer a dispute for resolution or make a complaint in respect of improper conduct, the RTB is willing, able and ready to carry out proper investigations. That must be welcomed. It is also important to note that the RTB provides a comprehensive dispute resolution process. It is confidential, secure and appropriate to the circumstances. As the Minister of State has done, I too encourage people who have difficulties with their tenancies, be they students or anyone else, although we are talking about students here, to contact the RTB. It has a website with a student contact number on a designated section. I encourage students to avail of it.

I fully support every aspect of this Bill. I commend the Government for driving it forward. It is important that we get on with it and do the business today because there is no conflict in terms of any of the aspects of the Bill. It has my full support. I apologise in advance that I will not be here later.

Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for bringing this legislation to the Seanad. I do not know who needs to know this but it is totally unacceptable that students would be asked to pay for accommodation they are not occupying. Students paying for accommodation they are not availing of is beyond perverse. We encourage students of all ages to invest in themselves, their education and in being greater participants in and contributors to society. One of the biggest costs involved study, after tuition, subsistence and travel, is accommodation. That any provider of accommodation would attempt to extort unfairly from students or those supporting them financially a payment for accommodation they are not using is totally unacceptable. For this reason, I really welcome the initiative from the Government and the Department to make this practice no longer permissible under law.

I hope the Bill will have unanimous support in this House. I would be surprised if it does not. It builds on the other initiatives this Government has taken to help and protect students who require accommodation to complete their studies. It builds on the changes the Government made in 2021 to restrict the payments that can be demanded by accommodation providers from students to a maximum of two months in advance. It builds on the change made to the legislation to require students to give no more than 28 days notice when ending a lease. It also gives extra protections and supports to students who require rental accommodation to complete their studies by giving them access to the Residential Tenancies Board.

As everybody engaged in discussions about housing and renting will know, the RTB has certainly had its challenges. It is something the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage has taken up. Only this week, representatives of the RTB attended a meeting of the committee at which we reviewed the progress the board is making to increase its efficiency and effectiveness as a regulator, let us say, and enforcer of standards in the residential tenancies sector. We need to support the RTB because we need a good, effective and efficient regulator so that renters, landlords and those providing rental accommodation are supported to behave and operate to the highest standards.

It is important that we have a stable and secure rental sector as well as private and social home ownership. Access to a secure home that is adequate to people's needs is a basic human requirement. It is essential for each and every one of us to be able to go to school, work, college or university, as we are discussing in this case, contribute to our society and country and reach our full potential. I support the legislation and thank the Minister of State for bringing it to the House. I look forward to it passing today.

John Cummins (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The Government takes plenty of flak for many things but it certainly cannot be accused of not taking this matter very seriously. It is implementing a fix to what has become an issue. It is clear, as others have said, that asking students to pay for out-of-term accommodation is not appropriate.

The Bill seeks to introduce three main measures. The first is that landlords cannot charge more than one month's rent in advance. The second is that leases cannot be for longer than 41 weeks except in cases where it is otherwise agreed by both parties, with penalties of up to €15,000 for breaches of this measure. The third is to enable a tenant to issue a termination notice between 1 May and 1 October. Essentially, this means a double protection has been implemented in this regard, with a tenant now being able to issue a month's notice on 1 May, so that come the end of the term, the notice of termination will have been issued.

The Bill is welcome and I have no doubt it will receive the full support of the House. The fact that we are moving at such speed with it shows the level of urgency the Government and Department have attached to it. I reiterate the call made by the Minister of State, on behalf of the Government, that existing providers of student-specific accommodation that already have licences and tenancies in place for students offer those students the opportunity to avail of updated terms and conditions in line with this legislation, as they have been advised to do by the Government. Obviously, the legal advice is that this measure is forward-looking. I understand and appreciate that but it is simply wrong that students would be charged for out-of-term accommodation. It cannot be justified on any level. I certainly hope that any of the providers that have engaged in this practice will review the licences and agreements they have with students and offer them updated terms in line with the provisions of this legislation. That is the most important message we can send from the House today. The legislation will have to be forward-looking.

It will not be the case from now but there is an onus on providers to take it upon themselves to see that the practice is inappropriate and to put the right steps in place. I commend the Bill to the House and I am sure it will have the full support of Members.

Rebecca Moynihan (Labour)
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I will not keep the House because it is important we finish the Bill. I thank the Government for bringing forward the Bill as quickly as it has done. I hope it will be passed by the end of this term. I live in an area with a lot of student-specific accommodation. It was not built to serve a particular need for students in the area but the developers were able to build it at a much higher density with lower standards than the apartments needed in the area for housing. They took advantage of the loophole for student-specific accommodation and the different application of standards. The accommodation should always have been on the basis that it was for term time but, seeking to maximise its value, the providers tried to turn it into tourist-specific accommodation over the summer months. I also have a problem with this, understanding that it can make sense for some of them. The providers are exploiting students to rent it out for the full 52 weeks of the year.

The Bill is very welcome and I thank the Government for acting on the issue. We have learned in recent years that purpose-built student accommodation providers need to have a very close eye kept on them when it comes to the standards of the building, how they operate and how they treat students. They change the rules to suit themselves depending on what time of the year it is . I very much welcome the Bill and I thank the Minister of State for bringing it through the House as quickly as possible.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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Similar to Senator Moynihan I do not intend to delay the House. I compliment the Minister of State and his staff. Reading the Bill is so simple for Members. It is very straightforward. I know it is quite straightforward but it is also put very simply. When we come to the end of the brief it states the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has already notified public and private SSA providers of the publication of the Bill and has requested that its measures be adopted without delay in respect of new and existing tenancies and licences. My colleague Senator Fitzpatrick put it very strongly in her opening remarks. Students should not have to pay for accommodation they are not using.

I have heard about this in my clinics, as have other politicians. Students and their families come to us to tell us they are not guaranteed accommodation next autumn if they do not book it for the summer months. This is shocking. It is fine if people are working in their university or college town or city and they have a job over the summer months. That is fine and they will need accommodation, but otherwise people should not be charged for it. This is why I welcome the Bill. It is very important we pass it.

I acknowledge that some landlords have made arrangements with students to ensure this will not happen to them. It is the Government's job to govern and it is the Government's job to put things right. This is putting something right and ensuring this abuse does not happen. It is good to see the Government having a solid programme of building accommodation for students. This is very important in the context of the Bill. I say well done to the Minister of State and the staff. All Members agree it is a good step forward.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I thank the Senators for their positive endorsement of the Bill. Certainly from what I have heard in the House today and in the Dáil earlier this week, there is universal support for it. I thank everyone for their contributions.

Several points have been raised by Senators. Senator Boyhan expressed his support for the Bill, and he and others raised the matter of addressing the issue of supply. This is something to which the Government is absolutely committed to doing through Housing For All. I welcome the comments from Senators Cummins and Fitzpatrick and all Senators on the specifics of the Bill.

I thank all of the Senators for their contributions. From what I have heard it is clear they agree that requiring students or their parents to pay for student-specific accommodation during the summer months is not acceptable to the House. Deputies in Dáil Éireann share this view. Both Houses of the Oireachtas have made it very clear that it is wholly objectionable for students and all renters to be required to pay in advance rent payments that exceed the lawful limit of one month's rent. A campaign by the USI in 2021 was influential in having the Residential Tenancies Act amended for all renters to restrict advance rent payments to no more than one month's rent and to place the same restriction on the amount of any deposit.

Provision was also made in 2021 to allow students to pay a greater advance rent payment if they wished and their landlord agreed. This provision was intended to help students but it is being used to their disadvantage by some private SSA providers to obtain large advance rent payments. The Bill will stamp out the practice. Under the Bill, an advance rent payment of more than one month's rent is only payable to a public or private education provider where it forms part of a combined rent payment in respect of both rent and tuition fees.

It is regrettable that the Bill is required at all. The outcry when some private student-specific accommodation providers moved to a minimum 51-week letting was loud and clear. An Taoiseach is very clear, and has been very clear from the outset in his former role as Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, as is his successor in the role of Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, as am I, and as is the entire Government, that minimum tenancies or licences of 51 weeks for student-specific accommodation are unacceptable. Cost implications aside, such lengthy arrangements are clearly unsuitable for the vast majority of students.

I express my sincere thanks to the members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage for waiving formal pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill. Given the time-critical nature of its provisions, there simply was not enough time to proceed with formal pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill during the session prior to its publication. Department officials attended the committee to provide a briefing on the Bill, which I hope Senators found helpful.

I also express my thanks to the House for facilitating swift passage of the Bill. The Government is sending a clear signal we remain steadfast in our goal to introduce protections for tenants, in this case students, which are warranted and can stand up to legal and policy scrutiny. I am aware of the difficulties faced by many students in accessing affordable and suitable accommodation to facilitate access to higher education. We all share a common goal of providing quality, affordable accommodation for students.

Housing for All commits to improve the supply and affordability of rental accommodation and the security of tenure for renters, including students. Last week, Dáil Éireann debated a Bill proposed by Deputies Farrell and Ó Broin regarding digs accommodation. The Government very much values digs accommodation as an integral and distinct housing solution for students and others. Income from digs is very important to those who open up their homes to share with lodgers. The Government agrees that everybody, including lodgers, should have a sense of security and protection in their home. I look forward to debates on the Bill.

The Government acknowledges that the cost of accommodation for those unable to live at home is the largest cost faced by students. The Government is developing policy responses to stimulate the supply of additional accommodation. This includes activation of projects with planning permission in the immediate term and the development of programmes for delivery of new accommodation through a standardised design process. Additionally, we will focus on vacancy and refurbishment projects and systematic responses to supporting measures to provide sustainable transport and access links to higher education institutions. This issue was also raised in the Dáil earlier this week. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy O'Donovan, is committed to developing a new student accommodation strategy, which will be published this year.

As I have outlined, the Government considers that students should not be sought or required to pay for accommodation beyond what is needed for the academic year, unless individual students request a longer tenancy. We must avoid any cost increase that acts as a barrier to higher education. To counter the move to 51-week tenancies and the large upfront accommodation payments being sought by SSA providers, the Department and I worked closely with An Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, and his Department to reduce the barriers to accessing third-level education. If enacted, the Bill will ensure SSA tenancies or licences are aligned with the traditional academic calendar of September to May, up to a maximum of 41 weeks. This does not, however, preclude students from seeking longer tenancies or licences.

The Bill will also strengthen the protections for students with regard to advance rent payments to ensure they are not sought or required to make payments of more than what is currently legislated for to secure a tenancy or licence in SSA. As I have said, following the enactment of the Bill, the only exception in which payments of more than one month's rent in advance will be permitted is where a student pays both rent and tuition fees to a single relevant provider.

In addition, the Bill amends section 58 of the Residential Tenancies Act to empower the termination of an SSA tenancy or licence by a student by means of a 28-day notice period between 1 May and 1 October in any year, whether or not there has been failure by the landlord or licensor to comply with any obligations of the tenancy or licence.

The provisions of the Bill will not affect any existing tenancy or licence. However, I do wish to add my voice to those calling for the provisions of the Bill to be given effect in respect of any existing tenancy or licence. Student-specific accommodation providers have got this wrong and can put this right for the students who are their customers. The customer is always right and the customers are calling loudly and clearly. We really cannot reiterate that enough today.

I thank Senators again for their contributions and I commend the Residential Tenancies (Amendment)(No. 2) Bill 2024 to the House and I look forward to progressing through the remaining Stages of the Bill today. I reiterate that I find it regrettable that the Bill is necessary at all. That said, the Government has no hesitation in protecting students and their families. The Government recognises that some families have more than one student to fund through third-level education at the same time. Every member of a family deserves the same chance to a third-level education and the Government is here to help families to manage their way through. Every person in the country deserves the opportunity to study at third level. The Government will continue to break down these barriers. Our well-educated workforce is a credit to the sacrifices made by families the length and breadth of the country. The Bill seeks to ensure SSA providers cannot cause families to make sacrifices that are unnecessary and deeply unfair.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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When is it proposed to take Committee Stage?

John Cummins (Fine Gael)
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Now.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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When is it proposed to take Report Stage?

John Cummins (Fine Gael)
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Now.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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When is it proposed to take Fifth Stage?

John Cummins (Fine Gael)
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Now.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I thank the Acting Chairperson. I thank the Senators for their co-operation here this morning, as well as for their universal support for this important Bill. I thank our team, including Catherine Comer, from the Department of housing for their work. I was going to say to Senators to enjoy their summer holidays, but we will be back in this Chamber next week for the Planning and Development Bill.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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I congratulate the Minister of State and his team. It is a great Bill that deserved attention.