Sinn Féin is urgent calling on the Government to address the increase in rents throughout Ireland.

The party made the call following the publication of the latest Residential Tenancies Board rent figures, which revealed rents rose again by 10%.

Dublin rents are now 3.9% higher than at the peak of the boom in 2007.

Spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin TD, said if the party's rent certainty bill tabled in June last year was passed it would have saved working families up to €2,000 per year.

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He said: "Fine Gael and their partners in government Fianna Fáil, voted the bill down. In doing so they gave a green light to landlords to keep on hiking up rents. Enda Kenny and Micheál Martin are directly responsible for the spiralling cost of rents.

"Fine Gael voting down Sinn Féin's rent certainty Bill was no surprise. However Fianna Fáil's failure to support rent certainty, considering it is mentioned as a key proposal in policy documents from 2015 and in the party's general election manifesto, is just puzzling. It appears to be another one of the party's policy U-turns.

"I will be writing to Minister Coveney asking him to urgently reconsider his party's opposition to rent certainty in the context of his forthcoming Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill due to be published in October. I will also be writing to the Fianna Fáil Housing spokesperson urging him to support amendments that Sinn Féin will table to the Bill, to deal with the rental crisis."

(CD/LM)