Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin TD, has said that renters are paying a very heavy price for government housing failures.
His comments were made in response to the latest RTB report, which showed new rents rose by 6% in 2024, existing rents rose by almost 5% in 2024 and 16,546 eviction notices were issued last year.
Teachta Ó Broin said:
“The latest RTB report shows that renters are paying a very heavy price for government housing failures. New rents are up 6% in 2024 and for existing rents are up almost 5%. It has never been more expensive to be an existing or new renter.
“Average new rents now range from €20,000 a year state wide and €30,756 in Dublin. Average existing rents now range from €17,148 statewide to €22,440 in Dublin.
“Every single county experienced a rise in existing rents above 2%, including all counties and areas covered by Rent Pressure Zones. While there are a number of reasons for this, it is clear that noncompliance with RPZs is widespread.
“The report did indicate some improvement in RTB enforcement of RPZs; there is still much more work to be done to ensure that all eligible renters receive the protection set out in the Rent Pressure Zone legislation.
“The report also highlighted that 16,546 eviction notices were issued last year. While this is down from 19,011 in 2023 it is still an exceptionally high number of terminations.
“Failure of government to ensure a sufficient supply of social, affordable and private homes means that many of these people are facing the prospect of unaffordable new rents, homelessness or emigration.
“Meanwhile, the report also shows that the number of disputes lodged by tenants for deposit retention by landlords increased significantly last year.
“Despite legislation for a Deposit Protection Scheme being passed by government in 2015, failure to enact this scheme continues to result in tenants being denied their deposits, putting them at greater risk of homelessness.
“What the RTB report shows is that the private rental sector continues to be an insecure and expensive place for far too many renters. The solution is to increase and accelerate the delivery of social, affordable and private for purchase homes while at the same time strengthening protections for renters to bring rents down, increase security of tenure and adherence to minimum standards and access to deposits at the end of a tenancy.
“The Minister for Housing must study this report carefully and set out what he is going to do to ensure that renters do not continue to pay for his government’s failure into the future.”
