Rental Sector Dail Éireann — 2026-03-05 ============================================================ Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire It is unbelievable. Average incomes in this country are €55,000 to €60,000. Many if not most people earn less than that. Take-home pay is €3,300 to €3,600 a month after tax. If you are looking for a three-bedroom apartment in Dún Laoghaire, you will not find anything below €3,000 today. Most of them are €4,500. I will read out a few figures in my area: €3,800, €3,050 and €3,650. More than 100% of the take-home income of the average worker is needed for the rents that are being looked for today. Suzanne, whose family is in an overcrowded two-bed, is looking for a three-bed. She is paying €1,700 and that is what is available for her and her two kids. She is going to end up homeless or staying in overcrowded accommodation, as are many people. It is an impossible situation and the Minister has got nothing at all to say to people. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-05/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-05