22 August 2017
By Bryan Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
Ireland is currently suffering a housing crisis, with too few properties to rent and hence raising prices. Various political parties have been apportioning blame for how the current situation arose. TheCork.ie has been contacted by many wishing to express their views. Below is the position of a Sinn Fein MEP.
Cork based Sinn Féin MEP Liadh Ní Riada has said the government “continues to pile failure on upon failure” when it comes to the housing crisis.
Liadh na Riada MEP
The Ireland South MEP was speaking in the wake of two reports this week which revealed that rent prices have leapt yet again while just 9% of available properties nationally fall within Rent Supplement and Housing Assisted Payment (RS/HAP) limits.
Reacting to the Daft.ie Rental Price Report and the Simon Community Locked Out Report VIII Ms Ní Riada said the regular studies were “a depressing illustration of the government’s abysmal failure to tackle the housing crisis.”
“In February a Daft.ie report showed that rent inflation for 2016 was at its highest level in 15 years and we heard grand words from Fine Gael and Fianna Fail about how they were going to solve the problem,” she said.
“Yet here we are six months on from that report and we learn that rent prices nationally have jumped yet again, a staggering 12% on this time last year.
“Even more concerning is the fact that just 9% of available properties now fall within RS/HAP limits, a more than 50% drop in available properties on last year.
“In Cork, rent prices rose by more than 11% in the county and almost 7% in the city. A mere 8 properties, from across all 4 categories across the city, fell within RS/HAP limits.
“Families were already struggling when Fine Gael and Fianna Fail allowed the last enormous leap in rent costs, where are those families now? How many of them have been made homeless by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail’s shameful record of failure, upon failure, upon failure?
