Rents in West Dublin “out of control” says TD

Sinn Féin TD for Dublin West Paul Donnelly has called for emergency action to reduce rents in the private rental sector.

Citing as the latest daft.ie rent report, Donnelly said that rents have increased by almost 7% in Dublin West in the last 12 months.

 Donnelly urged the government to ban rent increases for all existing and new tenancies for three years, and to “put a full month’s rent pack into every private renter’s pocket.”

 The report found that new rents in the area now stand at €2188.

“This is totally unaffordable for people on ordinary salaries in Dublin West. People need a break from sky-high rents now. It’s clear that Government has totally lost control of the housing market. Government has failed to deliver a sufficient volume of social and affordable homes. Their controversial policies such as Help to Buy and the Shared Equity Loan have pushed up house prices.” 

“Meanwhile, ordinary people in Dublin West are left paying the price for Government’s failures. People in Dublin West are trapped paying out of control rents, or living in cramped accommodation while they watch their dream of home ownership continue to slip even further out of reach.”

“Government urgently needs to adopt a different approach. They need to understand that unless we see the delivery of 20,000 public homes a year to meet social and affordable rental and purchase needs, then this crisis will continue.”

Donnelly pointed to Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil as the source of the problems, saying that rent prices across Ireland have increased by 155% since Fine Gael took office in 2011, with rents have increased by 30% since Fianna Fáil took the housing brief in 2020.

“This government has failed renters in Dublin West and across the state. They are out of touch and out of time. Only a Sinn Féin-led government will stand up for renters and deliver the genuinely affordable homes that they need and deserve. Our housing plan would deliver genuinely affordable homes for people in  Dublin West .”