Rents across Meath in Ireland have risen by 15.8% in the last year.

Cathaoirleach of the Meath Housing Campaign Peadar Tóibín TD hit out at Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil over their "wholly inadequate" response to the rents crisis.

He said: "The speed of rent increases is pricing many working families out of the market. It means that people in the east of the county are migrating west to find affordable rents and it means that many are being left homeless or in emergency accommodation over the Christmas.

"I have raised this issue directly with Minister Noonan and Minister Murphy. Shockingly, when I made the charge that Fine Gael want to see house prices and rents increase they have agreed stating that prices are not high enough to facilitate the building industry.

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"Last Monday, I attended Trim District Court House. It was choc a bloc, full of families in mortgage distress where banks were seeking to repossess their homes. That we have a property rent and price bubble in full swing in this county today while the collateral damage of the last Fianna Fáil property crash is still weaving its way through the courts is absolutely shocking.

"This is the third time that we in Sinn Féin have brought the issue of rent certainty to a vote in the Dáil and the third time that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in their cosy consensus have voted it down.

"The Secure Rents and Tenancies Bill 2016 brought forward by my colleague Eoin Ó Broin TD is a straightforward piece of legislation that any rise 'by way of a review of that rent shall not be greater or less than the level of inflation as indicated in the Consumer Price Index'.

"This would remove the possibility for the spikes and troughs that create the type of uncertainty for tenants and for landlords."

(CD/LM)