SOUTHSIDE Senator Catherine Ardagh (FF) has called on Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy, to come before the Seanad to discuss the rental crisis in the city.
The Fianna Fáil Seanad Group Leader said that any suggestion that the rental market in Dublin was slowing down had revealed Fine Gael’s “incomprehension of a housing crisis that is affecting more and more of our population as time goes on”.
According to new figures published by the Residential Tenancies Board, the average cost of rent in Dublin is now €1,500 per month.
This makes it the most expensive place in Ireland to rent a property.
However, responding to the same report, Housing Minister Murphy described the trends in Dublin rent inflation as “positive”.
Minister Murphy released a statement through the Housing Department, stating that the report which pointed to an annual growth of rent in Dublin of 5.2 per cent in the last three months of 2017, compared to eight per cent in the previous quarter, was essentially a “slowdown in the quarterly growth rate in Dublin rents”.
“And so, the year on year trend is also positive with Dublin rent inflation falling from 8 per cent in 2016 to 5.2 per cent in 2017,” he said.
“This is the lowest annual growth rate since 2013.”
However, Dublin based Senator Ardagh, raised the surge in rent prices during last Thursday’s Order of Business in Seanad Éireann.
“To insinuate that the rental market is stabilising is to be living in some parallel universe,” Senator Ardagh added.
“Any suggestion that new tenancies rents are slowing down is not just an insult to those continuing to struggle to fork out the cost but also indicative of Fine Gael’s lack of will to better support those in need of more affordable housing in Dublin.
“Rent in Dublin is pricing more and more people out of suitable housing and is all too regularly driving tenants into substandard accommodation being put on the market by rogue landlords.
“The latest figures reveal that rent pressure zones are absolutely not working and it is imperative that their feasibility is re-examined by the Department.
“These rates are now not just unaffordable for the average working family but for young professionals working in the city too.
“The prospect of saving for a mortgage or not falling into debt to meet the cost of rent in the Greater Dublin Area is becoming even further out of reach.”
Senator Ardagh said that as a result she has called on the Minister to come before the Seanad to discuss the rent crisis and the lack of proper social and affordable housing in the capital.”