James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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88. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures in place to provide additional protection for those living in student-specific accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26961/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am very conscious of the many challenges faced by students this year, including in relation to student accommodation.

Following significant rent increases in some privately run purpose built student accommodation complexes in 2018, the Department of Education and Skills worked in close cooperation with the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government to support the enactment of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019.

This Act ensured that students residing under license in purpose-built student accommodation would have access to the same rent predictability available to tenants. The Act contained provisions designed to ensure that students residing in both private and university-owned student-specific accommodation in Rent Pressure Zones will see rent increase of no more than 4% per annum. As the vast majority of student-specific accommodation is situated in Rent Pressure Zones, these protections apply to almost all of those residing in student accommodation.

The legislation also granted access to registered student and licensors to the dispute resolution facilities provided by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). Student accommodation license terms including cost, duration, refund and cancellation policies should be set out in the license agreement signed at the beginning of the academic year. If these terms are breached, a student has recourse to the RTB to ensure that the terms of their contract are upheld.

The Deputy will be aware that since March 2020, the university sector has actively engaged with students on the issue of accommodation refunds. As a result of the decision to minimise on-site teaching, all universities have confirmed that students who opted to leave their university-owned student accommodation as a result of reduced on-campus activity will be offered refunds or rental credits. The processing of these refunds is a matter for the universities themselves, and any student who wishes to receive a refund for their on-campus accommodation should engage directly with their university’s accommodation office.

I appreciate that the past year has posed very specific challenges in relation to privately-owned student accommodation, and that students and their families have suffered financially as a result. I am urging providers to be flexible in finding solutions given the circumstances in which students find themselves.

My position on student accommodation is well known at this stage and we are working across Government on how we can build more on-campus student accommodation.

My Department is also actively engaging with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on how protections for those residing in student accommodation can be strengthened and I expect Minister O'Brien to make an announcement on this very shortly.