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Out of reach: 'Young people now have nowhere to rent in the city that they work in'

The government is set to oppose Sinn Féin’s bill on rent certainty.

shutterstock_443168401 Shutterstock / Ingus Kruklitis Shutterstock / Ingus Kruklitis / Ingus Kruklitis

RENTS ACROSS IRELAND are at an all-time high, yet a bill that has cross-party and union support is to be opposed by government today.

The Secure Rents and Tenancies Bill proposed by Sinn Féin aims to deal with three key areas - rent certainty, indefinite leases and removing the sale of the property as a reason for eviction.

It’s been co-signed by Independents for Change, Labour, People before Profit, the Anti-Austerity Alliance, the Social Democrats, and the Green Party and is backed by a number of unions.

Fianna Fáil are planning to put down amendments to the bill this evening.

Uplift campaign group is also urging TDs to support the bill.

Rents rose nationwide by an average of 11.7% in the year to September 2016, according to the latest quarterly rental report from property website Daft.ie.

This is the largest annual increase in rents ever recorded in the Daft.ie report, which extends back to 2002. The average rent in Ireland during the third quarter of the year, between July to September, was €1,077 – also an all-time high for the report.

Yesterday, it was agreed at Cabinet that the government would oppose the bill.

Housing Minister Simon Coveney is planning to launch his rental strategy next month which hopes to deal with the crisis of soaring rents and tenants’ rights. The strategy is part of the housing department’s Rebuilding Ireland action plan.

“This crisis is affecting all those living in the private rented sector. Low and middle-income renting families are now paying between 40% and 60% of their disposable income on rent, with families relying on rent supplement or housing assistance payment (HAP) being priced out of the market. The 200% increase in family homeless since 2014 is a direct result of this crisis in the rental sector,” said Sinn Féin’s Eoin O’Broin.

Young people now have nowhere to rent in the city that they work in. According to the Residential Tenancies Board, in Dublin the average rent for a one bedroom home has increased by 24% that’s an additional €2,940 per year.

He said renters can no longer wait for the government to act.

O’Broin said the bill is being tabled today “to put pressure on the government and Minister Simon Coveney to include rent certainty and real security of tenure in his long-awaited rental strategy”.

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    Mute Hakuin Murphy
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    Oct 13th 2014, 12:56 PM

    Yeah but can he do it against Stoke on a wet Tuesday in February?

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    Mute Philip Neasy
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    Oct 13th 2014, 2:41 PM

    Ha ha. Deadly.

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    Mute Kane Abel
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    Oct 13th 2014, 10:41 PM

    I nearly won that Noble priz but i had problums fillin in da form

    #CheatedByScincetusts

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    Mute Stefan Epure
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    Oct 13th 2014, 10:45 PM

    Bring him in as a consultant for Irish Water……

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    Mute Shala
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    Oct 13th 2014, 12:49 PM

    Well I feel like an underachiever!

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    Mute Moccy Fondoo
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    Oct 13th 2014, 3:15 PM

    With his brains, he could’ve been a World class musician, a brilliant artist, or perhaps, a poet, – but, lousy money, – what a waste …

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    Mute John Collins
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    Oct 13th 2014, 4:07 PM

    Moccy fondoo

    You need talent for those things, not brains. Speaking of wastes, poetry is much more pointless than economics.

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    Mute Moccy Fondoo
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    Oct 13th 2014, 4:29 PM

    I’m sure that’s true if you have no soul, I wouldn’t know.

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    Mute John Collins
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    Oct 13th 2014, 7:01 PM

    I’m an atheist, i don’t need you to tell me i have no soul.

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    Mute Sergé
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    Oct 13th 2014, 11:02 PM

    Economics is not about money, but about organising the society’s resources in such a way that they will bring the most benefit. Regulation and competition policy exists to protect consumers and nurture competition.

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    Mute Grot Master
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    Oct 13th 2014, 3:00 PM

    Economics: The science of explaining tomorrow why yesterday’s predictions didn’t occur.

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    Mute sid
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    Oct 13th 2014, 2:22 PM

    If he was over here they’d stick him on jobs bridge doing ecdl

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    Mute Ken Mitchell
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    Oct 13th 2014, 4:58 PM

    Yeay and he only went to an institute of technology and didn’t get a 1.1 from trinity so he doesn’t make the cut

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    Mute Dee4
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    Oct 13th 2014, 12:53 PM

    they gave one of those to Krugman who proposed that the US inflate the housing market after the 2000 downturn. How did that one work out? Economics is as much a moral “science” as anything else and the excessive modelling that has taken hold of economics just gives it the veneer of respectability.

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    Mute Trudy Taaffe
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    Oct 13th 2014, 1:47 PM

    But is he happy?

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    Mute Ray rogers
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    Oct 13th 2014, 3:00 PM

    No, he’s miserable. Happy?

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    Mute jack frost
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    Oct 13th 2014, 2:08 PM

    Lot on his mind I’d say…. Thank f..k mine is free !

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    Mute Dsl
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    Oct 13th 2014, 3:16 PM

    No sports or social mentions ..

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    Mute Éamonn Tiernan
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    Oct 13th 2014, 5:59 PM

    But did he get a B2 in honours Leaving Cert construction studies?

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    Mute Cian Byrne
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    Oct 13th 2014, 8:07 PM

    He should be our taoiseach, pitty, he wouldn’t earn as much as he would deserve!!

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