Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the shift in Government policy in regard to investment in student accommodation. That is what we as a party have wanted for a long time. Will the Minister confirm that at the end of 2019, there were 28,414 student accommodation units registered with the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB? However, at the of 2021 that number was down to 21,681. That was a decline of 7,000 beds. How many student accommodation units are registered with the RTB for 2022? Those figures have not been made publicly available yet but we urgently need that information. Where have the 7,000 student beds gone? Student-specific accommodation was given €88 million in tax breaks by the Government since it came into power in 2011. They should not have been allowed simply to alter their use.

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