Taoiseach Micheál Martin has admitted a recent report which shows average monthly rent in Dublin is just under €2,000 is “not satisfactory.”
Rents for new tenancies rose by 9% nationally in the last three months of 2021 in comparison to 2020, new data from the Residential Tenancies Board and the ESRI shows.
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald grilled the Taoiseach and said his housing policy is failing and called the rental crisis a “social catastrophe.”
She said: “The rent crisis is hammering a generation today, and robbing them of their aspirations for tomorrow for their future.
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“This is not simply an urban crisis, rural Ireland fares no better.
“Counties like Donegal, Longford, Roscommon and Leitrim have all experienced massive jumps."
The report shows rents in Roscommon increased by a whopping 25% in the fourth quarter of last year and rents in Waterford were up 24%.
Ms McDonald added: “And in fact, now, in many, many towns and villages, there are no homes available to rent at all.
“So where are people supposed to live, Taoiseach?
“How can they hope to put a roof over their heads, build a decent life or raise a family if that's what they wish to do?”
Ms McDonald also highlighted that the State is close to breaking the pre-Covid peak of 10,000 people who are homeless.
She called on Mr Martin to ban rent increases, give renters €1,500 in a tax rebate and to ramp up affordable housing in the Government’s Housing for All plan.
In response, Mr Martin said Covid-19 slowed down the construction of new housing.
He admitted the latest rental report was “very worrying” and “not satisfactory” but said it was related to “the supply issue.”
He denied that the Government's Housing for All plan was not fit for purpose.
And he hit out at Sinn Fein’s housing policy in Northern Ireland and accused the party of “engaging in complete contrast” with their policies.
He said: “Your tax credit would only add to the price of those rents, would just add to it, it would just be inflationary, there’s no guarantee at all that there would be a reduction of increasing rents for new tenancies, none whatsoever.
“You’re wrong in saying the Housing for All policy is not working, by definition, 35,000 commencements to March is the highest rolling 12 month average since 2008.
“So there is a lot of activity in the construction sector, a lot of houses are being built now both in the private sector, social housing, cost rental and a number of other schemes.”
In the final quarter of 2021, rents for new tenancies in Dublin were €1,972 per month, compared to €1,104 per month outside Dublin, the report outlined.
The highest average rent in new tenancies was in Dublin while the lowest monthly rents were in Leitrim, where the average rent in new tenancies stood at €740 per month.
The average annual cost to people renting in Dublin will be almost €24,000.
Social Democrats Housing Spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan said renters in Dublin will pay €12,000 more in rent per annum than they did in 2011 – and that’s just the annual increase.
He added: “For context, workers on the minimum wage – a paltry €10.50 per hour – earn just €21,840 in a year.
“How are workers on the minimum wage – and there are plenty of them – supposed to survive when average rental costs now exceed their annual gross pay?
“The record of this government is clear – the crisis is getting worse.
“Unless it radically revises its housing plans, this deterioration will continue."
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