As the Tánaiste knows, we have a student accommodation crisis and the SUSI grant has not been increased. I want to raise a very specific issue relating to the crisis. In Dublin, developers of luxury student apartments are now trying to change their planning permission so they can be used as hotels for tourists. This was predicted by my colleague, our spokesperson on housing, Senator Rebecca Moynihan, back in 2018. We brought forward a Bill, the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2021, to deal with this issue. The Government needs to find holistic solutions to this issue over the coming years. Will it work with our Bill to ensure that speculators cannot use the planning system to change purpose-built student accommodation into apartments for tourists?

The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is aware of several student accommodation developments in Dublin that have applied for and received planning permission for ancillary use of their properties for short-term visitor accommodation. This provision is temporary and will lapse in May 2022. However, for accommodation to be removed from student use at a time when there are significant student accommodation shortages runs contrary to the national student accommodation strategy and is contrary to Government policy. For this reason, officials are engaging with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on this matter. We are exploring all options available to us to ensure that purpose-built student accommodation remains in use for students and not for tourists. The two Departments met on this last night and expect to make a further announcement over the coming weeks.