News

Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall TD today called on the Minister for Health to intervene to compel the HSE to release smear slides to women affected by the CervicalCheck controversy so they can be independently reviewed. “The effect of trapping long-term renters in high rents is that the mortgage rules are actually inflating the rental […]

The Social Democrats today set out the party’s priorities for the new Dáil term, calling for a nationwide freeze on rents at current levels to stem the flow of low-and-middle income earners into homelessness. “The Government needs to intervene now to stop rents sky-rocketing any further. We have to end this exploitation of renters and […]

Social Democrats Political Director and Consumer Affairs spokesperson Anne-Marie McNally has asked what planet Minister Eoghan Murphy lives on if he believes that €320,000 constitutes an affordable home. “It’s bad enough that Fine Gael propose to effectively give away vast chunks of state land to private developers, but then asking people to pay €320,000 for a […]

The Social Democrats have described the government’s new Land Development Agency as an inadequate and unambitious response to the housing crisis. “There has been an urgent and obvious need for a development agency to coordinate the acquisition of land and the building of houses that are affordable to buy or rent. However, what’s being proposed […]

The Social Democrats today called for urgent measures to make private and public land available for housing in order to tackle the unprecedented housing and homeless crisis. ““We have had two housing crises in the past decade. We have to end this cycle now. We cannot rely on the market to deliver housing that is affordable […]

Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD said today it is morally repugnant that a State-backed corporate landlord has attempted to flout legal rent controls. The Minister for Housing needs to send a clear signal to corporate landlords that this kind of behaviour is morally repugnant, particularly at a time of chronic housing shortages and when […]

Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD has today called on the government to bring in nationwide rent caps as figures from Daft.ie show that rents across the country have once more reached an all-time high. Today’s Daft.ie report states that the average monthly rent nationwide during the first quarter of 2018 was €1,261, with average […]

Social Democrats Co-Leader Catherine Murphy has said it is completely unacceptable that the Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy, is unable to provide accurate figures regarding the amount of housing units built last year. She said that despite this lack of knowledge the Minister was irresponsibly making unfounded claims about Government exceeding its targets. Catherine Murphy […]

The Social Democrats today publish a Bill to help tackle hasty evictions, unfair rent hikes and growing homelessness by strengthening tenants’ rights. The party is seeking cross-party support for its Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 2018 which extends the minimum notice period for terminations of tenancies and strengthens tenants’ rights in relation to how rent caps are […]

Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD has said rent pressure zones have failed to prevent soaring rental prices driving more people into homelessness and must now be scrapped and replaced with nationwide rent caps. Deputy Murphy was commenting on data from the Residential Tenancies Board released today which shows that the average rent of new […]