The average cost of rent now sits at €1,901 in the South Dublin County Council area, according to a report from the Residential Tenancies Board. David Gardiner, Workers’ Party representative in Palmerstown-Fonthill, has called for public housing to be built in response.
Gardiner said: “Over the course of a year, the average price of rent in south Dublin comes to €22,812. This is almost a grand more than somebody working full-time on the minimum wage would earn in that same period. How are working people supposed to afford this when combined with an increase in the price of food, energy and fuel?”
“We over rely on the private market for our housing to the extent that councils are happy to give public land away if it means some sort of housing will be built, regardless of the quality. The problem here is that this leaves working people at the mercy of the sky high prices set by private developers and landlords.”
“The Workers’ Party believes that access to affordable and quality housing should be a right for working families. Public housing is the only way to make that a reality. This could be achieved if local councils would stop the sale of public land, like we’ve seen in O’Devaney Gardens and Kilcarberry, and instead used it to build universally-accessible public housing, with the price of rent based on income.”
