Council votes against scrapping extra rent for working children in social housing
Councillors in south Dublin have voted against a motion calling to remove an additional payment on working children living in council homes.
At a South Dublin County Council (SDCC) meeting this week, Sinn Féin councillor for Clondalkin, asked to review the differential rent scheme which places a 10pc charge on additional incomes in a household.
While some councillors argued that the additional rent is pushing “overcrowded council homes into debt”, the motion was not passed with 15 voting for, 16 voting against and one abstention.
“We have made a mistake, and I’m asking us to review it so we can address an issue that is growing more and more prevalent as tenants realise their new assessments are leading to a huge increase in rents for those with adult children now entering the employment market,” said cllr Carey.
"For one particular family in my area, rent jumped from €650 a month to €1,400 a month, and an additional €400 is due to come on board when their apprentice son returns from Galway.”
Currently, the council’s system involves 10pc of a household’s overall income and a flat fee of €3.
An additional 10pc is charged on any income from what are known as “subsidiary earners” – additional people in the household who earn over the councils social housing income eligibility threshold.
This threshold is around €40,000 to €47,000 depending on the number of family members.
For some social housing homes in SDCC, rent is already more than €135 above the national average. There is an ongoing review which means it could go up even higher.
SDCC’s Director of Economic Development, Colm Ward, said the 10pc on subsidiary charge was introduced in 2020 to “balance the books” and to manage maintenance costs.
“During the debates on rent in 2020, I predicted that the 10pc increase to rents above the qualifying figure would see an unjust and penal level of rent which would lead to resentment and conflict within those families,” said Cllr Carey.
“This increase is having an increasingly negative effect on households with adult children being penalised. Most of them only earn minimum wage, but because rent is assessed collectively, we are now seeing them having to pay exorbitant amounts in overcrowded families.”
"How are children supposed to move on in their lives if we push them into poverty traps such as this? I’m not advocating for a free ride for anyone – this new system is pushing parents into debt because they cannot afford to collect this level of income from their children.”
Voting against the motion, Brian Lawlor, Fine Gael councillor for Firhouse–Bohernabreena, said a rent review would be “fair” for SDCC.
“I welcome the executive introducing this to get all the money back that is going into council houses, which makes it fair,” he said.
“There have been times when no money was coming in and a shortfall – this money will go directly back into that work.”
When councillors asked for more input from themselves and tenants, Elaine Leech, Director of Finance at the council, said the rent review would be an executive decision.
“South Dublin is well below the national average in the rent collected from four out of five types of households, we charge a very fair rent to our older tenants” said Ms Leech.
“In terms of the budget for 2026, this charge was set on the income we expect to generate, and the expenditure is reflected in terms of our maintenance.
“It is necessary to retrofit and maintain our housing stock, and we will need additional income to do so.”
Cllr Carey said other councils in the country had a cap on how much additional family members are charged.
“Meath council charge a maximum of €195 a week and only charge €10 for every subsidiary earner, Dublin City Council (DCC) charge a maximum of €84 from subsidiary earners, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council charges €20 per person and Fingal charges €40 for the same,” he said.
“The view of councillors are not being taken into account – the biggest problem is this emphasis on maintenance and improvement when the point of social housing is to ensure decent standards of living.”
Supporting the motion, Madeleine Johansson, independent councillor for Palmerstown-Fonthill, said increasing rents have been affecting people across local authorities.
“I support this only on the basis that the income won't be made up by increasing rents on other tenants,” she said.
"It’s happening in all the local authorities – households in DCC are getting letters that their rent has gone up by hundreds of euro a week.
“This overcrowding is caused by the housing crisis, adult children cannot leave their family homes because they cannot afford private rents. And now they are hit with extortionate rents.”