LAST UPDATE | 19 hrs ago

DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL’S housing committee has backed a motion calling for the reversal of council rent increases which were introduced in April.

Last November, Dublin City Council narrowly passed its 2026 budget, which included rent increases for council homes.

At the time, People Before Profit proposed an amendment to increase commercial rates while at the same time introducing a rate-and-rebate scheme to protect small and local businesses from the increases.

People Before Profit said around 98% of businesses would have seen no effective increase and that this would have mitigated against rises in rents for council homes.

The 2026 budget, which included the rent increases, passed by a single vote after opposition from People Before Profit, Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats and a number of independents.

The “Differential Rent Scheme” then came into place on 6 April – it was the first change to the way in which rent for council homes is calculated in 30 years.

The motion to the Council’s housing committee was submitted as an emergency motion by People Before Profit’s Conor Reddy back in April and was voted on today.

It passed by 11 votes to eight and People Before Profit noted that the vote comes ahead of preparations for the 2027 budget.

Over the next two weeks, the other four area committees will vote on similar motions.

A spokesperson for People Before Profit said that during the housing committee debate, members highlighted the “hardship being experienced by households struggling with higher rents alongside rising food, energy and other essential costs”.

The spokesperson added that “concern was also raised that only six council tenants across the entire city have so far received relief under Dublin City Council’s hardship scheme”.

Speaking today, Reddy remarked that the vote “sends a very clear message” to the Council’s chief executive, Richard Shakespeare.

“A majority of members of the Housing SPC do not believe tenants should be made to carry these rent increases, particularly in the middle of a rapidly worsening cost-of-living crisis,” he added.

He also said that the debate “heard concerns about tenants being charged substantially more while continuing to live in homes affected by damp, mould, cold and longstanding maintenance problems”.

He said people are “understandably angry at being asked to pay more rent for homes that in many cases are still in poor condition” and added that some tenants are being tole they “may have to wait years to see improvements”.

“You cannot tell somebody living with damp, mould or a freezing home that they should pay more now and perhaps see the benefit somewhere down the line.”

Reddy added that such maintenance and refurbishment should be “properly funded by central government, not paid for by putting additional pressure on low-income tenants”.

Meanwhile, the motion also called for “alternative revenue-raising options” to be examined, rather than increasing rents from council tenants.

Reddy said these points raised at the housing committee will now be brought into the rent review agreed at last Monday’s meeting of Dublin City Council.

“I hope the chief executive listens to the clear call from the Housing Strategic Policy Committee and reverses these increases,” said Reddy.

He added that before the Council budget meeting, People Before Profit intends to put forward an “alternative that protects maintenance spending without making tenants pay the price”.

Tenants’ group welcomes vote

One of the organising groups in the campaign, Community Action Tenants’ Union (CATU), welcomed Monday’s successful motion.

Helen Moynihan, a spokesperson for Catu, said it shows that there is growing support within the Council for reversing the rent hikes.

“Tenants need affordable rents and proper maintenance. This vote is a major step forward, but our campaign will continue until the rent hikes are fully reversed,” Moynihan said.

She added that the council should be looking to do whatever it can to support and protect its tenants in a cost-of-living crisis, “not crucifying them” with a rent increase that Moynihan argued the council doesn’t need.

With reporting by Eoghan Dalton