Holly Cairns: Rents Soar, Student Offered €12,000 Upfront
Holly Cairns accuses the government of driving rents to record highs after new rent rules, citing recent data showing steep year-on-year increases in Dublin, Cork and Galway. She highlights a student’s desperate story - forced to pay €12,000 up front for nine months of accommodation - and urges the Taoiseach to admit the policy has failed renters.
Holly Cairns opens with fresh figures: rents are rising at the fastest rate in a quarter century, with Dublin up 7%, Cork 13% and Galway 18%. She says the government’s rent rules have already undermined renters and warns the measures have predictable and damaging consequences.
Cairns recounts the account of a Leaving Cert student who delayed college because she could not afford to live in Galway. After hundreds of viewings and a year on waiting lists, Lauren was finally offered a studio - only on condition of a €12,000 upfront payment for nine months. Cairns says no young person should feel embarrassed by this struggle.
Cairns points to landlords converting homes into short-term lets and Airbnbs, leaving fewer long-term options for students, workers and families. She argues the housing system is fundamentally broken as rents, house prices and homelessness all worsen under the current government’s approach.
The Taoiseach defended the government on the grounds of supply, referencing the Land Development Agency and targets to reach 50,000 homes a year. Cairns rejects the government’s dismissal of opposition proposals, arguing Social Democrats’ measures would tackle the crisis faster and calling government plans sparse and lacking credibility.
Cairns insists the housing emergency requires urgent, concrete action to increase supply now and protect renters immediately. The exchange in leaders’ questions exposes a deep divide over whether the government’s rules will stabilise rents or entrench a housing disaster for young people and families.
Immediate findings
Holly Cairns opens with fresh figures: rents are rising at the fastest rate in a quarter century, with Dublin up 7%, Cork 13% and Galway 18%. She says the government’s rent rules have already undermined renters and warns the measures have predictable and damaging consequences.
A personal human story
Cairns recounts the account of a Leaving Cert student who delayed college because she could not afford to live in Galway. After hundreds of viewings and a year on waiting lists, Lauren was finally offered a studio - only on condition of a €12,000 upfront payment for nine months. Cairns says no young person should feel embarrassed by this struggle.
Market failures and short-term lets
Cairns points to landlords converting homes into short-term lets and Airbnbs, leaving fewer long-term options for students, workers and families. She argues the housing system is fundamentally broken as rents, house prices and homelessness all worsen under the current government’s approach.
Government response and the supply debate
The Taoiseach defended the government on the grounds of supply, referencing the Land Development Agency and targets to reach 50,000 homes a year. Cairns rejects the government’s dismissal of opposition proposals, arguing Social Democrats’ measures would tackle the crisis faster and calling government plans sparse and lacking credibility.
What this means going forward
Cairns insists the housing emergency requires urgent, concrete action to increase supply now and protect renters immediately. The exchange in leaders’ questions exposes a deep divide over whether the government’s rules will stabilise rents or entrench a housing disaster for young people and families.
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Transcript
Today we got news that we all knew was coming. The government's new rent rules have already driven rents to a record high, rising at the highest rate in a quarter of a century. Year on year they're up 7% in Dublin, 13% in Cork and a whopping 18% in Galway. We told you this would happen and these measures would undermine renters and you said it was quote a ridiculous assertion. Now it's renters who are paying the price. Taoiseach Lauren Kina worked hard, sat her Leaving Cert in 2025 and got her dream course in Galway. Because she knew she couldn't afford to live there she put her life on hold for a year and worked full time to save up. I spoke to Lauren yesterday after seeing a video she posted online in tears at the heartbreaking struggle to find a place to live in Galway. She has tried everything. Hundreds of emails, viewing after viewing, applying on rent.ie, daf.ie, agencies, private student accommodation, digs, every avenue possible but nothing. After nearly a year on a waiting list for private student accommodation she was finally offered a studio but the condition was €12,000 up front for nine months. No monthly installments allowed. €12,000 up front. Taoiseach how is anyone supposed to afford that let alone somebody fresh out of secondary school? Lauren said something else which stuck with me. She said she feels embarrassed. Taoiseach, no young person should feel embarrassed to be in this situation. Your government should be embarrassed for failing them. Right now this feels like a country with no vision for young people, no place for them and no future that they can afford. What are they supposed to do? Work harder? Save more? They're already doing that and it is not working because the housing system is fundamentally broken. Taoiseach we've all been knocking indoors on Galway so I'm sure you've seen the same thing that I have. Everywhere you look there are lock boxes hanging from houses turned into short-term lets, houses that could be homes for students, for workers, for young families. Instead they are Airbnbs going for extortionate rates while young people like Lauren are left crying into their phones wondering what they're supposed to do. Taoiseach at what point are you going to admit that Ireland is becoming a country that young people simply can't afford to live in and will you now admit that your rent rules have been a disaster? Taoiseach please. Well again Deputy, rents have been too high for far too long. Any economist will say there's only one way to deal with this and it's supply. We need more supply and we need it more rapidly. The government has taken decisions that will ensure over time, it's going to take time and I was said at the time, to get more supply. Sorry, look, with respect no I didn't interrupt you and I haven't interrupted anybody here. I'm going to make this point. This is a fair point. I've looked at your proposals. There's nothing in your proposals that would increase supply over the next three years. Anything over and above what the government is doing. In fact it would be less. I've looked at your state construction idea, company, it's three or four years down the line before anything would come out of that. We already have a land development agency which is 14,000 in the pipeline. It's a time now people got real here. It's all very well doing the sloganeering and we all know the crisis out there in housing. The government is taking decisions in respect of it that have substance behind them because we need to get to 50,000 per annum. I've seen nothing anywhere across the house outlining how you propose to get there as alternative proposals to what the government's proposing. So we've activated local authorities, approved housing bodies, the land development agency and yes the private sector. You are totally opposed to the private sector having any role in housing. That is your party position. Are you not happy with your leader posing the question? You've been saying it Deputy Heron. The rules are the rules. This is leaders questions. If you're not happy with the leader that you have asking the question, maybe you consider changing that. But respect the answer to the question that's been asked. We will continue now. Could I say the RTB data shows we've about 246,000 tenancies, the highest on record. Now in terms of the daft data in it, it indicates in terms of asking prices, but it's not a comprehensive. The RTB does more comprehensive data set in terms of the entirety of the market. I think one has to take these figures with some degree of care as the author himself acknowledges that the report has to be taken with some degree of, examined with care. And that has to be said. And as far as the bottom line here is we want rents to moderate, we want to get them down. The bottom line is what was happening over the last four to five years prior to the change was not sustainable. You know that. The Housing Commission said it wasn't sustainable. The SRI said it wasn't sustainable. Everybody accepted it wasn't sustainable and therefore certainty had to be given to the market. And also additional protections. In terms of existing tenancies, they haven't been impacted in any shape or form to the same extent. I am not going to tell you again. But that won't get said. And we're talking in terms of the newer tenancies here. We need more supply. Deputy Hearn, you're free to leave if you can't compare it with Moose. You have to have more money to buy land so that it's affordable. And that's what the Government is capable of. Deputy, please. Taoiseach, the confidence with which you try to slate the Social Democrats' policies on housing is honestly astounding when you consider that you're coming in here on a day where there's news that rents have gone up more than they ever have since records began. And that's in the context of a housing crisis that's turned into a housing disaster and then into a catastrophe where there are record levels of homelessness, where rent prices, house prices and homelessness are all going in one direction under your government. And then you stand up in here and say that our plans would do damage. Your response and your rhetoric on housing is now ringing about as hollow as your election promises. Time after time, piece of legislation after piece of legislation that come in here, the same thing happens. The opposition warn you. We tell you this will bring up rent prices. You do this big, how dare you doubt my bona fides thing. And then rents go up. And then you come in here and spout out these lines about how the opposition's plans won't work. It is not credible. This government has no credibility. Taoiseach. I don't think your proposals are credible. They're so sparse. They're so lacking in detail. They're not fleshed out. I genuinely don't think the Social Democrats policies on housing are credible. You talk about a savings and investment scheme. Like, sorry, sorry, it would take years to implement, you know that. The issue here isn't funding. The state has put up 9 billion. So sorry, but I'm saying, you know, let's go, let's talk about the savings investment scheme that you've put forward. How would that bring rents down next year? How would it bring rents down the year after? It wouldn't add one additional supply of housing until about four or five years' time, even if you got the additional funding. That's the point I'm making. Your housing construction company, it's so poorly fleshed out. Deputies. Look, I don't mind having a debate about housing. If you don't want to listen to the answer. No, we're not. Absolutely not. No, we're not. Deputy Taoiseach, please, excuse me. This is not a back and forth. I suggest, Deputy Ahern, you go away and you learn the rules of the House. The standing order for leaders' questions is a back and forth between the leaders. Do you have a difficulty with that? Because at any stage, if you can't comply with the rules or the chair's direction, you're free to leave, as is any member. Now, we have a lot of business to do today and I intend to get on with it. If you wish to finish, Taoiseach. I would just to make the point that research with the RT has made it, you know, in terms of if you compare like with like and apples with apples in terms of the other data reviews that have taken place, it's a far different story in terms of the impact on existing tendencies in particular.