Students cannot afford another year of accommodation hikes – Senator Harmon
Students cannot afford another year of accommodation hikes – Senator Harmon - The Labour Party
Labour further and higher education spokesperson Senator Laura Harmon has strongly condemned further increases in on-campus accommodation prices for the coming academic year, with costs set to rise across the majority of the Republic’s leading universities. Senator Harmon said Minister James Lawless must take urgent action to protect students and families from rising accommodation costs and work with Labour to close loopholes that allow providers to circumvent rent controls.
Senator Harmon said:
“Students and their families are being squeezed from every direction, and yet once again they are facing higher accommodation costs as they prepare for the new academic year. At a time when the cost of going to college is already putting enormous pressure on household budgets, these increases are simply unacceptable.
“The Minister is not doing enough to get the cost of student accommodation under control. We cannot continue to accept a situation where students are paying extortionate prices for a room simply because they want to access education.
“Last week, I launched Labour’s Residential Tenancies (Student Rent) Bill 2026, which would prevent student accommodation providers from circumventing rent controls by ensuring mandatory service charges are included when calculating rental prices.
“Some providers have used so-called ‘mandatory fees’ to get around rent controls, driving already exorbitant accommodation costs even higher. Service charges for security, building costs and other expenses can be added on top of the agreed rent, leaving students facing increases far beyond the headline rent rise.
“We saw this at DCU last year, where students faced a 1.7% increase in their monthly rents which was within the allowed rent control 2% limit but when service charges were added, the total increase came to almost 7%. That is completely unsustainable. Minister Lawless himself has acknowledged that this practice is against the spirit of the law. Now he needs to act.
“I hope Minister Lawless will work with me to enact this much-needed protection for students and their families. Students and their families are already under huge financial pressure, and many face impossible choices between torturous commutes, paying above the odds for accommodation or dropping out of college altogether. The Minister cannot stand by while costs continue to climb. Government must tackle the spiralling cost of student accommodation and back my Bill.”