People Before Profit table emergency motion to reverse Dublin City Council rent hikes
People Before Profit has tabled an emergency motion to reverse Dublin City Council’s rent hikes.
At tonight’s monthly meeting, People Before Profit are calling for the immediate reversal of rent increases imposed on council tenants, HAP tenants, RAS tenants and some Approved Housing Body tenants. Prior to the meeting CATU members are hosting a demonstration also calling for the rent increase to be scrapped.
The motion stated that the increase must be reversed and backdated to April 6 and is calling for an urgent review of alternative revenue sources, including unpaid vacant and derelict site levies, developer contributions and tourist accommodation levies. It also demands that the Department fund planned maintenance for council housing rather rather than being funded by tenants.
At the November 2025 budget meeting , People Before Profit councillors Conor Reddy and Hazel De Nortúin put forward an amendment that would have scrapped the rent hikes and increased maintenance funding. Through a rates-and-rebate model that protected small businesses, they sought to raise the money instead from the city’s biggest commercial interests.
Cllr Reddy stated that “these rent hikes were a political choice” that should be reserved. “Tens of thousands of tenants are being hit at the worst possible time, in the middle of a deepening cost of living crisis,” he said.
“ Dublin City Council should not be balancing its books on the backs of working class tenants, HAP households and families already struggling to keep the lights on and food on the table.”
Fellow People Before Profit Cllr Hazel De Nortúin stressed “there is no justification for asking tenants to pay more while so many are living with mould, damp, disrepair and delayed maintenance.”
“We already showed in November that there was another way. The Council should now act with urgency, scrap these increases and pursue fairer alternatives instead of squeezing those with the least,” she said.
With over 320,000 people in arrears on their energy bills and almost one in five living below the poverty line, People Before Profit state this is a cost of living emergency and requires an immediate response.
Call for Reversal of Rent Increases and Review of Alternative Revenue Raising Mechanisms
This Council calls on the Chief Executive to:
The cost of living crisis is acute and worsening, so much so that there were significant nationwide protests that effectively shut down the city centre for several days last week. Rent increases hitting vulnerable households now constitutes an unexpected and dangerous situation requiring immediate Council action. Standard motions on notice cannot respond with the urgency this demands.
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