Cavan/Monaghan Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith has welcomed the introduction of emergency legislation aimed at stopping student accommodation providers from forcing students to pay for housing during the summer period. He added that accommodation costs are a huge burden on students and their families and all malpractices by landlords should be adequately addressed.
This very welcome legislation bans accommodation providers from only providing 51-week leases to students.
Deputy Brendan Smith said that the legislation, which has been signed into law, was expedited by his party colleague, Minister Darragh O’Brien, due to a recent increase in student accommodation providers only offering 51-week leases for students.
“I want to recognise the efforts made by my party colleague, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien, in speeding up this legislation and it has now come into effect in time for the new academic year starting this September.
“This welcome ban on students being forced to pay for 51-week leases for student accommodation is necessary as a result of that practice becoming more and more common. Those practices created unnecessary hardship and additional costs for students and their families. Paying for accommodation for the academic year is more than a burden for most families.
“Fianna Fáil in government is committed to removing barriers to education wherever possible and there is a need to introduce further supports for students in Further and Higher education due to increased costs over recent years. Minister O’Brien is to be complimented on this initiative”, concluded Brendan Smith TD.