An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-09
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Laura Harmon (LAB), Industrial and Commercial Panel

I would like to raise the issue of student accommodation rent increases. We saw over the weekend reports that the Minister for housing, Deputy Browne, and the Minister for further and higher education, Deputy Lawless, are at odds on how often there should be student rent hikes over the coming years. The Department of housing believes there should be no return to market rents until 2029 and the Department of further and higher education believes there should be at least two rent hikes in that time period. My position is that there should be no student rent increases. It is extremely worrying that this Government, which has increased student fees while calling it a decrease, is now proposing to increase student rents as well. Last year, according to the student union in University College Cork, 28% of students there went to class hungry because of student poverty. The president of Munster Technological University has said that housing is now the biggest access barrier to further and higher education. That is a really stark thing for a president of a college to say. We know that more and more students - those who are not coming from overseas - are having to stay at home with their parents in their childhood bedrooms and are commuting long distances. This is contributing hugely to congestion in towns and cities across the country. Whose side is the Minister, Deputy Lawless on? Is he on the side of students and families or is he on the side of developers? The State should be stepping in to support students and families, rather than passing on the costs to them to entice developers who are already making millions of euro in profits.
I second the proposal from Senator Cosgrove.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-09