No Democracy As South Dublin County Council Pushes Through Rent Hikes

The unelected management of South Dublin County Council is increasing rents for all council, AHB and HAP tenants from 1st July. The rent increase includes a hike from 10% to 12.5% of tenant income as well as the inclusion of the Working Family Payment as assessable income.

For some tenants they will see increases from 25% to up to 50% in their rent in the middle of a cost of living crisis.

Management of the council initially refused to call a special meeting despite their legal obligation to do so when requested by councillors. Councillors from the Red Network, Sinn Féin, People Before Profit and the Social Democrats signed a Section 140 motion instructing the Chief Executive to pause the rent increase until a full consultation with councillors and tenants has taken place.

Following the legal letter being issued the management eventually agreed to hold the special meeting but are now insisting that they will not implement the motion even if it is passed. The Chief Executive Colm Ward says in his email to councillors that: “In this case, should the motion be passed, it is not actionable for the reasons outlined earlier and therefore would not give effect to any material action or outcome by the executive.”

The differential rent scheme is currently an executive function, meaning it doesn’t have to be voted on by councillors. However, legislation from 2009 that would give this decision back to councillors has not yet been enacted by the government. Also, it is common practice that council management seek support from councillors for big decisions like rent increases.

In South Dublin County Council a rent review was first indicated in Budget 2026, but there were no details of what this would entail, nor was it clearly stated by management that this would be implemented in 2026.

At the Housing Strategic Policy Committee meetings in February and May presentations were given and at the May meeting it was announced that the rent increase would take effect on July 1st, despite opposition from some councillors. Earlier this year, in February a motion was passed at a full council meeting requesting that no rent increase take place until there was meaningful consultation, this was completely ignored by council management.

This is not the first time that council management has avoided bringing controversial items to councillors for a vote. For example, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil councillors worked hand in glove with the chief executive to avoid having any vote on the multi-million euro tourism project at the Hellfire Club, which faced local opposition.

Any motion or budget amendment brought in relation to this were ruled out of order. This is because those councillors wanted to be able to play both sides, to say locally that they were against it while not having to vote on it, thus supporting the council management behind the scenes.

Fine Gael councillors have been trying to get council rents increased for years but have been unable to get support from the majority of councillors. Now, they are working with the unelected management to make the poorest people in our county pay increased rents.

They are using a government report that talks about bringing council rents closer to market rents, to justify this increase.

South Dublin is one of the richest local authorities in the country, there is no need to increase rents for tenants to provide proper maintenance. This is about a political choice, and that choice is being removed from elected representatives.

I am organising to fight back against these unfair rent increases. There will be protests outside County Hall in Tallaght at 3pm on Thursday 25th June and at the Civic Offices in Clondalkin at 6.30pm, also on Thursday.

Ultimately, we need to end the rule of the unelected bureaucrats in our councils. Those bureaucrats represent the bosses, not working class people. We need to put workers in the driving seat of our councils, but this can only be done through revolutionary change in how the councils and the state operate.