The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has begun a rent-book scheme for first-year students to help protect them from what it calls "cowboy" landlords.
Promoting the book outside the Department of Environment and Local Government in Dublin, the USI deputy president, Mr Noel Hogan, said the accommodation crisis has become so bad that it was putting the "lives of students at risk through health and safety breaches.
"There needs to be genuine Government commitment to the enforcing of regulations," he said.
He quoted figures from the Department of Environment showing 3,685 inspections were carried out in relation to standards of rented housing accommodation in 2001.
Although over 50 per cent or 1,964 of these did not meet regulatory requirements, action was only taken against 49 of them, he said.
"Too many landlords are putting their tenants lives in danger in what can only be described as deathtraps," Ms Maureen Woods, USI welfare officer, said. She called for the Government to publish a list of criteria and regulations that prospective landlords must abide by.
The USI are also demanding the student grant be brought in line with social welfare payments to offset the escalation in students' cost of living.