Student Accommodation
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-12
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

It is a priority of mine to make higher education more accessible, as I have been saying in reply to earlier questions. Part of this is the cost of accommodation, the cost of putting a roof over everyone's head, and making sure that the students are ideally as close to their college as possible. I firmly believe that the student experience and the college experience necessitates, and is enhanced by, being proximate to the college and having the opportunity to not only be in college for classes, but to attend extracurricular activities and to form new friendships and new networks. Notwithstanding that hybrid lectures and online study can be useful and can be of assistance in certain ways, there is no substitute for the real life in-person interaction. Student accommodation, therefore, is so important for many reasons. There are two ways we go about that. One is through viability and the other is through supply.
Specifically on the Deputy's question and focusing on the service charges and whether they are used as a way around rental restrictions in terms of the law, there are two points. The legislation governing that is the law on rent pressure zones, which is outside of my Department. This jurisdiction is within the preserve of the Minister for housing, Deputy Browne, and his Department. I would say strongly that student accommodation falls under the remit of the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB. The board offers a dispute resolution service and it has the authority to investigate breaches of rental law, any improper conduct, any unlawful rent increases and any misbehaviour by landlords, including student landlords. This all absolutely comes into the domain of the RTB. The board can impose sanctions of up to €15,000 in fines. Any student or any representative of students who comes across a situation where they believe the RPZs are not being honoured or that the legislation is not being adhered, should make a report to the RTB and have it investigated by that independent body, which is commissioned for that purpose, so the full force of the law can be brought to bear in those situations.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-12