Higher Education Minister Simon Harris is being urged to allow more flexibility for pensioners renting rooms to students.
Some pensioners are concerned that they may lose their medical card if they pass the income threshold from receiving rental payments.
The weekly gross medical card income threshold for those aged 70 and over is currently 550 euro per week for a single person and €1,050 for a couple.
Fine Gael Senator Maria Byrne has called on Minister Harris to create a rent-a-room scheme so pensioners won't be discouraged from offering a room to students.
We must ensure that pensioners willing to rent a room are not met with obstacles.
This is in light of the student accommodation crisis and housing crisis more broadly.
In a press release, Senator Byrne said: “A flexible approach to student housing is exactly what we need. We must ensure that pensioners willing to rent a room are not met with obstacles.
“Students and pensioners would jointly benefit from an income disregard whereby a certain amount of income from a particular source, the rent a room scheme in this case, is not considered.
"Ultimately, this would avoid interference with the medical card income threshold."
Record number of people homeless
Figures from the Department of Housing show 10,568 people were in homelessness as of July.
That figure includes 3,137 children and is the highest on record since October 2019.
These are the highest numbers recorded since October 2019, when the figure stood at 10,514.
However, the Government figures do not include anyone living in so-called 'hidden homelessness' such as rough sleepers, women in refuge centres or those in Direct Provision.
Student accommodation crisis
Students have been asking UCD if they can camp in tents on-campus due to the ongoing rental crisis.
UCD Students Union president Molly Greenough told The Pat Kenny Show thatstudents are taking out loans they can’t afford to pay rent – and still being refused.
The union launched its Digs Drive, which aims to convince people to rent out spare rooms – earning up to €14,000 tax free in the process.
Students handed out flyers all over Dublin urging them to consider renting a room to a UCD student for the coming academic year.
