‘Cork students 'paying rent above the limits in pressure zones’

STUDENTS in Cork are paying rents that exceed the limits allowed in pressure zones, incoming University College Cork students’ union president Katie Halpin-Hill has said.

Ms Halpin-Hill, who takes up her role on June 1, following her election earlier this month, told The Echo that her campaign centred on the challenge of finding clean, safe, and affordable accommodation, as well as the increasing price of food on campus and the need for hybrid lectures.

A native of the Waterford Gaeltacht, Ms Halpin-Hill, a final-year student, is a veteran of student politics from her time in Meánscoil San Nioclás, in An Rinn/Ring. She was involved in the school’s student council and the Irish Second Level Students’ Union. When she came to UCC, she was elected oifigeach Gaeilge.

Challenge

The big challenge for students is to find accommodation. “It is so difficult to find somewhere that is clean, safe and affordable,” said Ms Halpin-Hill. “The rents have risen so much.

“Even since I first came to Cork, rents have risen exponentially: Landlords are completely circumventing conditions as set out in the rent pressure zones.” Landlords are exceeding the maximum 2% increase in rents by getting new tenants each year and not informing the new tenant of the previous rent.

“They’re circumventing those conditions and there’s really not a lot of regulation there,” Ms Halpin-Hillsaid. “The rents are continuing to rise.”

She gave an example. “It was €525 per month one year and the student who took the room the next year was paying €600, an increase of €75 per month.” While that was between a student and a private landlord, there are issues with on-campus accommodation.

Levy

Since 2022, students have had to pay an extra levy per year to cover their utility charges. 

“That’s an additional €500 students have to pay to cover the cost of utilities, which had previously been included in the overall cost of accommodation, and that’s since gone up to €650 for the year.” Another issue is campus food, both its price and its quality.

Campus food is subsidised, but prices have started to rise, while the quality has disimproved “a considerable amount”.

“If you were looking to get a vegetarian curry, it would have been €5.80 last year, but now it’s gone up to €6.25 and that’s just in a year.” 

Ms Halpin-Hill wants “to nip this in the bud, before the prices keep on going up”.

As the UCC student body has become more diverse, there’s a need for more variety on the menu, she said.

“There’s a real problem, as well, with the range of food that’s available: There’s a real lack of options, such as halal, kosher, and vegan foods.”

Since the covid pandemic, when students had to study from home, there’s been a growing demand for a hybrid lecture option.

“It’s really an accessibility issue: So lectures should be broadcast live remotely or recorded so that students can access them,” Ms Halpin-Hill
said, not least because students have to hold down one or more part-time jobs to be able to pay for their increasing cost of living.

“Most students I know are trying to complete their studies while holding down part-time jobs, sometimes two, three, or four part-time jobs, to try and tackle the cost of living, and that’s where the pressure is coming from.

“It’s not necessarily that there’s more examinations or more difficult examinations or more balls in the air to juggle.”

Response

In response to some of Ms Halpin-Hill’s concerns, a spokesperson for UCC said: “UCC is not in a position to comment on the operations of private accommodation providers. Due to increasing energy costs imposed by providers, a utilities charge for UCC campus accommodation was introduced in 2022. However, at that time the core cost of rent was reduced to mitigate for the impact on users.

“As with all food retail and hospitality providers, campus outlets have experienced an inflationary increase on the cost of business, which has necessitated price increases.

“These changes were approved by the UCC catering committee, which includes members of the student body. Students have a wide variety of meals from which to choose, with fresh ingredients, many of which are harvested from the farm in Curraheen.

“The current policy on recording of live teaching leaves the decision to record at the discretion of the individual lecturer. Recordings are intended to be a study aid for students, and on-campus attendance is encouraged.”