A Cavan councillor is looking for more protections for students who are renting.
Damien Brady raised the issue at the recent meeting of Cavan County Council.
Cllr Brady cited a recent survey that was done by four of the colleges in the south of Ireland with students showed that 60% of them struggled to find accommodation and 82% felt very frustrated looking for accommodation.
He said the situation often forces students to live in unregulated accommodation that charge "extortionate prices", or work 30 to 33 hours a week on top of their education.
The Sinn Féin man also noted that because students mainly rent accommodation for nine months, they are not protected by recently introduced Rent Pressure Zones in the way long term renters are.
Speaking to Northern Sound, Cllr. Brady says he understands the situation all too well.
"It's not that very long ago, the house that I live in, I paid £55,000 at the time for it. Moved in here on the 12th of January 1998, and I got £5,000 back as a first-time buyer's grant. That was £50,000 the house cost me. I've actually given €48,000 for a two-bedroom apartment for four years for my twin daughters in Sligo. A woman that I spoke to one day, a parent of a student who's in accommodation in Dublin, she says to me, "you're very lucky, Damien", and I says, "am I?" She says, yes, I'm given €12,000 for my son to sleep on the top of a bunk bed in a room that's no bigger than a wardrobe. And this is why I want the Minister for Housing and the Minister for Education to put some regulation in place that two students in that room were given €24,000 a year for rent for one room in a house."
