Rents are continuing to rise in the city, with a recent report showing they have increased by more than eight per cent, while homelessness in Galway has risen by 42 per cent in the last 12 months.
The situation led Sinn Féin TD, Mairead Farrell, to demand that An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, “act urgently” on the rental crisis in Galway.
The latest Daft.ie report, released this week, shows that rents have increased by 8.8 per cent in Galway city and by 19 per cent in the county.
.
"This is a phenomenal increase and is a massive additional cost for workers and families to bear - on top of rapid increases in household bills,” said Dep Farrell. "This latest Daft.ie report makes it clear that there is little or zero affordable rental supply in most parts of the State.”
She added that the Government’s two per cent rent cap was “not working”. She called for a ban on rent increases on all existing and new tenancies, and for the Government to introduce a refundable tax credit worth a month’s rent.
.
Dep Farrell [pictured above] also said the Government’s social and affordable rental targets for 2022 were “not sufficient and must be revised”.
"The ban on local councils buying homes with the Housing Assistance Programme or the Rental Accommodation Scheme tenants in-situ where the landlord is selling up is forcing families into homelessness,” she said, “while the properties are being sold to investment funds, who lease these same properties back to local authorities. This makes no social or economic sense.”
In response, the Taoiseach confirmed he would raise this matter with the Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien.
