Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 January 2022
611. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his views on developing a publicly financed student accommodation building strategy and charter for student tenant rights; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2611/22]
View answerI am committed to working collaboratively with my colleague the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to improve student accommodation provision through a dedicated working group set up for that purpose.
I believe that Housing for All : A New Housing Plan for Ireland will transform every aspect of our housing including the area of student accommodation. The Plan is backed by historic levels of investment with in excess of €20bn through the Exchequer, the Land Development Agency (LDA) and the Housing Finance Agency over the next 5 years. Crucially Housing for All takes a genuine whole of Government approach to creating a long-term, sustainable housing system for Ireland. Housing For All contains a commitment to support technological universities to develop purpose-built student accommodation where such a requirement exists, through access to appropriate financing, and a specific action in relation to legislating to allow for Technological Universities (TU) to borrow from the Housing Finance Agency.
My Department has reviewed the legislation currently in place regarding The Housing Finance Agency Act 1981 (as amended) and is satisfied that it is robust enough to allow any such lending to take place without any further legislative changes. The Technological Universities Act 2018 amended the Higher Education Authority Act 1971 to include TUs in the definition of "Institutes of Higher Education". As such, the current text of the 1981 Act will allow HFA loans to be advanced to TUs once of course they have gone through the appropriate application procedures etc.
The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, is also engaging with all the universities, including the technological universities, to explore further options which may be available to increase the availability of student accommodation, and they are being supported where necessary by officials in my department.
Much progress has been made in recent years in reforming protections for tenants in student specific accommodation. The Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019 provides for relevant obligations and rights under residential tenancies legislation to apply to tenancy and licence agreements in student-specific accommodation, provided by public educational institutions or by private accommodation providers. The operation of the rental market and the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2021 are kept under constant review and any necessary legislation will be introduced.
