Dublin City Council’s decision to increase rents on social housing tenants is a red herring that targets working people in order to distract from fundamental issues with the state’s housing policy, according to Garrett Greene, Workers’ Party representative for Cabra-Glasnevin.

Greene said: “The idea that Dublin City Council should increase rents on working people at a time when they are already struggling to get by is a rather brutal one. Workers already feel the cost-of-living crisis in their daily lives, and this will only worsen it by taking more money out of people’s pockets. Some tenants can expect increases of as much as 50%.”

“It is no secret that much of Dublin’s social housing is substandard in terms of quality. The increase, we’re told, is for the purpose of allowing the council to carry out maintenance works on their housing stock due to a gap in their budget, but a rent hike is only a red herring as far as solving this issue is concerned. For decades, the state has shirked its responsibilities on housing, including on maintenance, in order to push people towards the private market to the benefit of the profiteers. We’re often told how much money there is in Ireland, so why must council tenants, many of whom are already struggling, cough up the money for something that serves the common good?”

“Ultimately, the only way to secure high-quality and genuinely affordable accommodation for working people is the mass construction of public housing. It would provide for social housing tenants and those struggling to buy or to rent, bringing more revenue into state coffers and allowing the state to provide more better-quality homes for working people for generations to come.”