Sinn Féin has hit out at the government after figures revealed rents increased faster in 2015 compared to any other time during the boom.

Rent levels increased rapidly in September, according to new figures from Daft.ie.

Since September, rents have risen across the state by 3.2%.

Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick saw increases of between 8.9 and 13.5% on last year.

Housing spokesperson Dessie Ellis TD said: "Sinn Féin welcomes the decision to delay rent reviews by a further 12 months for a period but it is simply too little too late. What we needed was a much earlier intervention by the state but in any case something more far reaching and could have been done even at this late stage.

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"For the last five years we have been calling for the government to implement a system of regulation on rents which would not just limit increases but directly deal with existing unaffordable rents as has been done in cities like Berlin with great success. This would have meant setting local standard rates based on the size and location of a property and limiting future increases to inflation and the consumer price index. A measure such as this would have brought down rents to a fair level in the short term and ensured stability into the future. Unfortunately the government have offered the bare minimum in terms of regulation and offered landlords a sweetened deal with tax breaks and lower standards.

"Rent controls such as those proposed by Sinn Féin will not help people already homeless in the short term, as some have noted, but it would stop the flow of tenants into homelessness due to an inability to afford already excessive rent levels. Under the government plan, unaffordable rent will remain unaffordable. We also expect many tenants who have not had their rent increased already this year to have a substantial increase before this new legislation is in place."

(CD/LM)