'This can't be right': Tenants challenge council rent rises

Seamus Reidy is one of many council tenants around the country who have recently received letters telling them their rent is increasing significantly.

"It was unbelievable when I saw it because I said, this can't be right," he said. "Basically, they were looking for what I was paying a month nearly every week," he added.

Seamus works and uses a wheelchair. He says he wants to maintain his independence but believes the way rents rise with income can discourage tenants from progressing in employment.

According to the letter, his rent in an accessible bungalow in Leitrim was increasing from €37.30 a week to €159 a week. In monthly terms, he was asked to go from paying from €162 to €689.

He sought help from the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) and applied to have his new rent reassessed on hardship grounds. The council subsequently revised the charge to €100 a week (€433 when calculated in monthly terms).

Seamus isn't alone. There have been protests recently over council rent increases in Dublin, Wicklow and Leitrim, amid changes to how rents are calculated.

In Co Dublin, Linda Roddy says the rent on her family's three-bedroom council house in Ballymun has doubled to €320 a week (approximately €1,386 monthly) since last year. She has since found herself in arrears. She says she does not know what accounts for the increase.

She moved into the Dublin City Council home 15 years ago and works part-time, while her partner works full-time.

"We're trying to pay it every week, but we might as well be paying a mortgage," she said.

"I never owed a penny to Dublin City Council, because I wanted to buy my house. I always paid my rent on time," she added.

Now, she says, she is worried about falling further behind over Christmas.

"You're worrying about Christmas, you're worrying about going in more arrears now after Christmas, because you're going to be trying to do everything, with a certain amount of wages."

Council housing rents are linked to household income through what are known as differential rent schemes.

Dublin City Council says its scheme has not changed significantly since 1996 and is reviewed annually. The council says the average proportion of household income charged in rent across its tenancies is 15.3%.

How are council rents calculated?

Working out what a household pays in local authority rent involves more than applying a single percentage to assessable income.

Each local authority sets its own scheme. The rules differ between councils on which income is counted, how much is excluded before rent is calculated, what other earners contribute, and which allowances apply.

Dublin City Council charges the primary earner 18% of net income after a €55 weekly disregard. Each secondary earner’s contribution is capped at €40 a week, while a €3 weekly deduction applies for each child.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown uses a different calculation: 16% of the principal earner’s weekly assessable income above €35, and 11% of each subsidiary earner’s weekly assessable income above €35.

Other councils use income bands. In Tipperary, the principal-earner calculation is €20 on the first €200 of net weekly income, plus 20% of income above that.

Minimum rents, maximum charges, and allowances can further affect the final bill. The headline percentages therefore tell only part of the story.

What is clear is that in 2026 several local authorities have been reviewing their differential rent schemes, leading to significant increases for some tenants.

In the meantime, the Government has been examining the introduction of a national framework that could standardise how rents are charged to social housing tenants nationwide.

The reviews and the potential introduction of a framework have been viewed with scepticism - even protests - from some tenants, and some opposition politicians.

Yet some housing experts say that rental income needs to be sufficient to cover the cost involved in maintaining and renewing housing stock in each local authority area.

They say rents have been too low in many councils to ensure housing stock can be kept for long term use.

Are changes coming nationwide?

Renters’ rights charity Threshold says that whatever the percentage charged, households in similar circumstances should be treated consistently nationwide.

"There has to be consistency of approach, that if you're a household with a certain set of circumstances, it shouldn't matter whether you live in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Dublin City, Leitrim, Donegal, that you will be treated in a similar way," Threshold chief executive, John-Mark McCafferty, said.

"Right now there's too much of a variation of rental treatment between households with the same circumstances that just happen to be in different geographic areas."

There is disagreement about whether a single national rent scheme is the answer.

Some European social housing providers take a different approach. A Housing Agency report examining Austria, Denmark and Finland describes systems where rents are linked to the cost of providing and maintaining homes, rather than tenants’ incomes.

UCD Professor of Social Policy Michelle Norris argues that Irish council rents should also be linked to housing costs.

Under an income-based system, she says, councils cannot be certain that rental income will cover the costs needed for maintenance and renewal.

"It means that the councils do not know they have enough money to manage and maintain the housing. They can't be sure they can cover costs," Prof Norris said.

"The current model is really not fit for purpose. I don't take the view that there should be a national scheme because the costs of different local authorities vary," she added.

Calls for reform have been raised in the Dáil and at council meetings.

The Department of Housing said its new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, commits to reviewing rents paid to local authorities and approved housing bodies, with a view to introducing a national framework.

It said the aim was a consistent and equitable system that protects vulnerable households.

The Department is examining existing schemes with assistance from the Housing Agency. It said potential reforms would need to balance fairness and financial sustainability while protecting those on the lowest incomes and at greater risk of poverty.

It expects the analysis to be submitted to Minister James Browne later this year. Any proposed national framework or alternative reform would then be considered by Government.

In the meantime people like Linda and Seamus say they have been surprised by the impact on their rental bills.

The question for some is whether a national framework would have a similar impact nationwide, and whether that is what is needed to make maintaining a social housing stock viable in councils nationwide

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A report on council rents from reporter Josh Crosbie and producer/director Aaron Heffernan is broadcast on the 12 November edition of Prime Time at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.