"Beyond a joke" - Sitting room is "off limits" in house share in Kildare

The Dáil has been told of a property in Co Kildare which is for rent and the ad says the prospective tenant has a bedroom and use of a kitchen and utility room - but the rest of the house is "off limits". 

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told the Taoiseach at Leaders' Questions this week that these conditions are "soul-destroying" for renters. 

The TD said: "What people are being offered for their hard-earned money is beyond a joke.

"€625 per month for a bunk bed in a room with three other people.

"€1,880 per month for a room the size of a parking space where you pull your bed down.

"€1,100 per month for a bedroom, use of the kitchen and a utility room, but the rest of the house, which is in County Kildare, is off limits. This is soul-destroying stuff."

Ms McDonald said that rents have soared to unaffordable levels and that the latest daft.ie report is a nightmare read for workers and families caught in the private rental trap.

She added: "The average rent now stands at a staggering €1,733 a month. These are extortionate sums and there is worse to tell of. Apartments blocks are being built now where the asking rents will be even higher."

She told the Dáil: "The rent crisis has had a devastating impact on the lives of an entire generation. People in their late 30s and 40s are stuck in house shares because they cannot afford to rent a place of their own.

"Young people are unable to move out of their parents' homes because they have not a chance of renting.

"So many are financially crippled by years of paying these rack-rents and are faced with the choice of moving back in with mam and dad or emigrating for their shot at a better life in another country.

"At the sharpest end of this crisis, thousands of families face losing the roof over their heads when the eviction ban expires in April. This is all happening because Government housing policy is failing."