Paul Murphy warns that proposed council rent increases across Dublin would force people to pay more while living in mould, overcrowding and squalid conditions. He criticises Dublin City and South Dublin County Council accounting, and urges Labour and the Greens to reverse their vote at the next budget.
On the ground: Murphy details visits to flats in the North Inner City and other areas where tenants face mould, rats, repeated repainting and chronic overcrowding. He praises the deep community solidarity he saw, and contrasts that with the poor conditions residents are forced to endure in 2026.
Council accounting and excuses: He accuses Dublin City and South Dublin County Council of using misleading accounting to justify average rent increases of around 30%. Murphy points to examples including the inclusion of central government retrofit funding - about £7 million a year - inside council expenditure to make maintenance shortfalls appear larger than they are.
Political responsibility: Murphy places primary responsibility on central government for underfunding councils, but calls out Labour and the Greens for voting to increase rents. He describes that vote as a "horrendous mistake" that can and should be reversed at the next budget.
What he wants: Murphy demands commitments from Labour and the Greens to reverse the increases and to prioritise proper maintenance and differential rates on large corporations instead of charging already vulnerable tenants more. He warns that leaving tenants waiting in unacceptable conditions while charging higher rents is indefensible.
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I've had the pleasure, over the past number of months, of visiting a lot of flats in the North Inner City in the context of the campaign against the rent increases, which is a Dublin-wide campaign, even though we're at different phases and in the context of the by-election. And what strikes you in the flats, it's interesting, hearing the TDs from the constituency talk what strikes you is the sense of community, like a very deep sense of community because of people living so close together and very strong sense of community, of solidarity, like really, really great people. That on the one hand, but on the other hand, what strikes you is the pretty horrific conditions that people are asked to live in in 2026. Mould everywhere, the stories of people repainting their flats over and over, rats, obviously overcrowding, which is chronic across the city. It is just utterly unacceptable. What we've heard in terms of Oliver Bond is just outrageous, to waste people's time, to lead them up a garden path and then to leave them waiting again in horrific conditions because of effectively a tick box approach to resolving the housing crisis as opposed to actually dealing with the situations that people are facing. It is outrageous that people who are living in such poor conditions have been asked to, are being forced to, are being compelled to pay even more in rent. And it's outrageous that this argument for them to pay more in rent to DCC, an average increase of 30%, is wrapped up in the language of we want to be a good landlord. We want to be a good landlord, so we have left you living in crap for years and years and years or decades and now we want you to pay more for the privilege of it. It is outrageous. The main responsibility for that goes to the central government for not properly funding our councils, but I would also say there is a lesson here for Labour and the Greens in particular. It was a horrendous mistake to vote to increase these people's rents. Horrendous mistake. The mistake can be righted at the next budget. There's a big campaign to ask people to reverse it. Ultimately the vote was lost by one. There was an amendment to say no we should not be increasing people's rents, instead we should hit the big companies in terms of introducing effectively a differential rates scheme. It can be reversed for next year. We need commitments from Labour and the Greens to do that as opposed to charging people more. I want to talk for a moment about South Dublin County Council. In my constituency we don't have that many social housing flats. We have obviously lots of social houses. The same sort of issues apply. The biggest issue is just people waiting for years and years and years for windows and doors that are necessary. They have gale winds passing through their houses. The idea of having insulation or whatever in that context is obviously a complete joke. But just like in Dublin City, just like in Fingal, just like in Galway, in South Dublin, their management, with the presumed agreement of the ruling group, is planning to go for big rent increases. They have produced a PowerPoint outlining their case where effectively they are trying to suggest that like in Dublin City they take in less in rent than they spend in maintenance. It is not true. When you go through the figures it is not true whatsoever. They are adding in all sorts of extra expenses and so on. I will go into some of it for a second to try and create that impression. In Dublin City they said we are not getting enough in rent, we have to increase and then we will improve maintenance. In South Dublin they are raising a fair bit more in rent than they actually spend in maintenance. They have no excuse for not providing it. But they are trying to pretend that, for example, I will give you one example, including in their expenditure is the money that comes from central government for retrofitting. It is about £7 million a year. They are including that in their own expenditure to try and pretend they are making less. The truth is they are taking in a lot more in rent than in maintenance. They do not need to increase the rents. There is no argument for it whatsoever. .
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