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DESPITE PREVIOUS COMMITMENTS to expedite a ban on the practice of forcing students to take leases longer than their term times, it is now unclear whether the legislation will be amended before the Dáil breaks for its summer recess.
TDs and Senators are set to break from Leinster House in three weeks time, with no legislation progressed between then and September.
At the end of May, Minister for Further and Higher Education Patrick O’Donovan and Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien brought a memo to Cabinet to speed up the legal change that will outlaw 51-week leases for students.
However, with just three weeks left ahead of the Dáil recess, it is now unclear if the legislation will be updated in time for the September semester.
Earlier this year, The Journal reported that some students in Dublin were told they need to pay on average €3,000 more per year for their accommodation because private accommodation providers were extending their leases beyond term time.
Following this, in February, then Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris committed to amending legislation to crack down on the practice.
When asked for an update on the amendment this week by The Journal Taoiseach Simon Harris said he wants to see it done before the Dáil summer recess.
“It was a priority for me when I was in that role. I know it’s a priority for Minister O’Brien and Minister O’Donovan.
“There are too many people who are, if not acting outside the letter of the law, are definitely acting outside the spirit of it… and it remains a priority for me to resolve it,” he said.
However a spokesperson for the Department of Further and Higher Education would not commit to a timeline.
When asked for an update on the legislation, the spokesperson said the memo brought to Cabinet last month provided an update on the process and cited the intention “to examine the options” relating to the issue.
“Both Departments have been working closely in recent months so that these changes can be made as soon as possible to avoid any unnecessary hardship and additional costs on students and their families,” the spokesperson said.
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Too many landlords in both departments.
@bruce banner: Too many landlords… period.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: no one else is building houses ya dope
@Paul: the vast majority of landlords are one or two properties. Are they building houses? Try keep up. Get them greedy shower reduced and there are a lot more available for ordinary people to buy. Only showing up your ignorance by throwing out insults. I’d say you are a landlord
@Fr. Fintan Stack: What happens to people who want to rent? Screw them?
@Sal Paradise: what happens to all the people who want to buy properties that have been hoovered up by landlords? Screw them? For profit and greed?
Anyway where did I say landlords should be eliminated?
@Fr. Fintan Stack: The issue isn’t one or two properties landlords those are badly needed, it’s the corporations who buy houses and apartments in bulk for the sole purpose of renting them at high prices. You aren’t very bright are you? More like jealous I assume.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: You’re comment makes no sense..you can either afford to buy a house or you can’t…landlord or not….
@Alex: Not the only issue but, one or two propertiy landlords own the vast majority of rented properties. And the majority of renters want to own their own home. Maybe you are not very good at maths. But one of the main reasons these tenants are forced in to renting is because of the huge combined property portfolio of landlords, big and small. But for you lot it’s down to preserving the status quo, I suppose, so you can reap the rewards of someone else struggle.
@Clare Power: maybe you don’t understand one of the main reasons why prices are so high in secondhand houses and properties are not within reach of a huge proportion of buyers. Not the only reason by any means.
@bruce banner: We wouldn’t be in this mess if FG/FF hadn’t caused the Housing Crisis, we’ve been discussing this problem on the Journal for over ten years and now we have a shortfall of a quarter of a million homes, its getting woyear on year and I’m afraid its not going to improve under the aforementioned parties who caused this dire situation in the first place.
@Mr Inbetween: “worse” year on year.
@Clare Power: You can’t buy what isn’t for sale and only one third of new homes are put on general sale. The rest are social housing/Government funded NGO housing charities or institutional investors
@Paul: as if landlords do anything besides leeching
@Clare Power: ‘You can afford it or you can’t’ would work if we didn’t have a huge supply and demand issue. I know more than a few with a deposit saved who’ve gotten approval but are competing with so many other people to buy. It’s not just an affordability issue.
It’s a priority for me .. so I don’t know when I’ll do it. … Simon Harris
The 18-covids kid! And why does he have the posture of Theresa May? In saying that, it doesn’t seem to be a priority for the people as his party been returned with (landlord) Independents and Labour propping up FFG at local authorities across the country.
@Big Beats: Dublin is safe……Helen.
@Jp Cleary: Is the Phoenix Park safe as well Helen….. Helen ?
Landlords should be allowed do as we please with our hard earned assets
@John D Doe: most trolls use renters to pay off their assets while they sit back and relax…….lol
@brian o’leary: so what’s your proposal, ban renting?
@Ronan Meagle: Student accommodation was never 52 week.
Until now.
Just ban 52 week student leases.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: make courses 12 month?
@brian o’leary: If a 4 year degree course could be reduced to 3 years, then that might be of benefit to most.
Except Universities, and their staff.
(Staff who would also need statutory holiday time.)
@brian o’leary: I know plenty of landlords or trolls as you so politely put it…not one of them sitting back…all out working hard, after all more than likely the reason they can afford a second property.
@Clare Power: no, the reason they can afford a second property is because someone else is paying the second mortgage in most cases. Could they afford the second or third property on their regular day job that they are all working so hard in?
Of course the entirely predictable consequence of this is that many landlords will ditch the students and get in full time workers instead..rent for 52 weeks unhindered and not have your house potentially trashed every year by half-feral students, problem solved. Yet another dumb government initiative that’s gonna make the situation worse not better!
@Jonn: or charge a higher rate for the 9 months to cover the vacant period.
@Jonn: All the recent governments are driving landlords out, starting with bed sits. Just look at Daft for properties for sale in any of the big towns or cities and see how many are ex- rentals. It’s complicated enough renting to employed tenants, who would touch students or hap?
@brian o’leary:
Yeah, that too, but either way it’s students..and their parents..who’ll pay the price! Less student accommodation, and what is there will become even more expensive. Nice job of work,government!
@Jim Connolly:
The more government’s have meddled in the rental market under pressure from clueless far left TDs the more dysfunctional the market has become..and still they meddle!? Who would be a renter, or a landlord?
@Jonn: If the government left rented housing to the free market and stopped meddling new landlords would purchase rental properties with all the deposit accounts that are lying in the banks getting miniscule interest and the cost to tenants would reduce significantly. However this won’t happen because the government are competing with the left wingers just to be popular.
@Jim Connolly: Too many landlords as it is. Yes, we need a certain amount. Vast number of people in rented accommodation want to purchase their own home, but can’t. With landlords and even councils outbidding and having bigger deposits and buying in bulk, the ordinary person hasn’t a chance of purchasing. Government should disincentivise more landlords coming in to the market.
Home ownership has now become a business at the expense of the little guy/girl.
Unlikely to have another article but looks like the final solution being exercised with the West Bank being Annexed.
@Padraic O’ Sullivan: i had my account banned back in 2021 for telling an Israel defender that she’s a supporting child murderers. I wonder where these people/Journal admins are now.
@Eoin .h: Anyone suppressing the truth of what israel is, and does, is complicit in what israel is and does.
Bring back bedsits.
There will be a lot of people complaining about this that voted for ffg in the recent election knowing well that they are an incompetent bunch of gombeens
And a Left Alliance had the number but Labour+Greens decided to prop up another FFG term. As well as Inds.
Till we personal question the global agenda we will never solve our housing problems and other issues in our country.
I don’t understand why they want to squeeze us so much to get the global agenda in place. Just admit there a global policy and stop running a long side it a local policy that can never be implemented unless we say no to the global one just pick up and be done with it.
God be with the days when you’d just feck off and use your deposit as the last months rent…. different times.
Will this not simply discourage Landlords from housing students at all?
This was Harris’s portfolio before he became the Lucky Bag Taoiseach & as in all his Ministries, he bamboozles everyone with talk but achieves nothing ! It’s deliberately done to delay bringing in any change & is now too late for parents like ourselves who have already had to pay out for a full year, as there is no student accommodation & a shortage of digs. This week we have seen the Justice Minister Helen Mc Entee, who Harris backed to the hilt, fail victims of crime getting Justice. Nobody trusts the Gardai, Judiciary or Minister for Justice, no reforms of the Judiciary/Legal Golden Circle. Harris is well able to have Gardai arrest & jail those who protest against them but ordinary citizens are abandoned by him. Harris has reverted back to his woke politics, a spoofer.
If this was really a priority it could be done today. At this point the pretence that the government actually wants to make things better for tenants is insulting.
Jesus. Will these layabout TD’s just do the bloody jobs they are supposed to do.They can enact stupid laws through the Dáil quickly when it suits them but laws to help the people…forget it.If the law enactment is behind schedule stay the extra few days and do the extra work needed. Just effing do your jobs.
Simon Harris condemns the Aer Lingus pilots for sticking to their signed contract duties and not doing additional overtime work or answering their work phones while on personal time ,but had no problem buggering off with all elected ministered while this issue remains u solved.
So the landlords have learned from the agribusinesses and aviation companies and are now using lobbyists and PR companies to influence government. What chance do Joe and Mary soap have?
It’s all about greed! It doesn’t matter if you are Itrish or not… An Irish citizen or not… An Irish politician or not… A majority of people in Ireland think only of themselves, their is no compassion for others in none tragic situations. As a result, there’s loads of vampire cowboys that are in this country and outside this country preying on anyone they can. A person may be safe in this country from gun violence, war and violence…. But one isn’t safe from folks preying on our hard earned money.
Landlords of student specific buildings usually run by international operators got tax relie, fast track planning and exemptions. They are only allowed to rent to students and they can rent to different students over the summer. They are just too lazy and greedy now, taking advantage of the housing crisis.
History is repeating itself in ireland… except it ain’t the brits this time… its the tech industry big pharma and the globalists who now control our country… all for capitalists greed
The housing crisis is a supply issue primarily. This legislation along with the short term letting ban would guarantee thousands of units of accommodation are empty for three or four months a year. Let the market sort itself, and being back bedsits and budget rooms.
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