John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Earlier this month the Taoiseach published the second report on Ireland's well-being framework and analysis of the well-being dashboard. That analysis identified a number of groups in Irish society that experience inequality across a high proportion of indicators. These groups include women, single-parent households, households on lower incomes, people with long-term sickness or disability, immigrants, non-Irish and households in rented accommodation. This represents a sizeable proportion of the population across all age groups living with social and economic inequality daily. It must also be noted that, despite the introduction of equality budgeting by the Government a few years ago, it is clear that little progress has been made. The at-risk-of-poverty rate after housing costs is 41.6% for those in rented accommodation, in comparison with 9.3% for those in owner-occupied accommodation.

Sinn Féin's emergency motion includes provisions to reduce and to freeze rents and to put a month's rent back into renters' pockets with a refundable tax credit.

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