Rent prices in Co Meath have increased by 50% in the past four years, according to data published by Daft.ie.

Sinn Féin TD for Meath East and Cathaoirleach of the Meath Housing Campaign has said that Budget 2017 will do little to support those in the rental sector.

He said: "Budget 2017 may offer flashy proposals such as the First Time Buyers incentive – but this will do nothing to help the thousands of people who are paying increasingly extortionate rents.

-- Advertisement --

"In June, Sinn Féin tabled our rent certainty bill which proposed to link rent reviews with inflation. If passed this would have put a break on spiralling private sector rents. It would have saved working families up to €2,000 per year.

"The bill was voted down by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, which gave a free pass to landlords to keep on hiking up rents. That Fine Gael, the party with the largest proportion of landlords, voted against it was no surprise. But Fianna Fáil went directly against their election manifesto which promised to introduce this very measure.

"The government cannot continually overlook the needs of families who are forced to pay an increasing proportion of their income on spiralling rents. Simply put, if they do not act on rising rents, more families will become homeless, with many more forced into serious financial hardship as a result of the cost of renting a home."

(CD/LM)