The Union of Students in Ireland will today present a petition to the Department of the Environment for measures to relieve a crisis in student accommodation. Signatures to the petition were collected at a 24-hour soup kitchen outside the Bank of Ireland, College Green, Dublin, yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party spokeswoman for Dublin, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, has called on the Government to declare a housing emergency and put in place a plan to deal with the housing crisis facing people in the private rented sector.
The USI president, Mr Dermot Lohan, said the USI measures, if implemented, would benefit not only students, but all those who rely on the private rented sector.
The USI proposals include an immediate examination of the effectiveness of offering tax incentives to landlords who rent accommodation on a short-term basis; capital investment in oncampus accommodation for students, which should be in line with housing regulations; funding for a feasibility study into the establishment of a student housing association; and a review by the Department of the effectiveness of the registration system for landlords introduced in 1996.
Mr Lohan said USI said in 1996 that students would bear the brunt of registration costs, which they had, and that registration would not guarantee safety standards and the use of rent books, which it had not. According to Department of the Environment figures, only 26,651 of some 70,000 units in the private rental sector had been registered.
"Two reports published last week, from Threshold and the Inner City Partnership, highlighted the crisis in housing availability," said Ms Fitzgerald. "People caught in the private rented trap include students, young families on lengthening corporation and council housing queues, people priced out of buying their own homes, the homeless and asylum-seekers.
"Our baby boom peaked in 1980. These 18-year-olds are now first-year college students and there is unprecedented demand for scarce flats and houses to let. USI's role in highlighting the rental housing crisis is to be welcomed."
She called for funding for housing associations and rental co-operatives; rehabilitation of derelict and vacant property; a realistic "living above the shop" scheme; a 10 per cent social housing element in all new developments; and earnings disregards in welfare and differential rent systems for subletting spare rooms in family homes.
The USI demands are supported by the National Parents' Council.