URGENT change in legislation called for as new figures reveal 934 evictions in Limerick in 2025.
The latest Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) Directors Report confirms that Limericks families are facing the full force of a rental crisis that the Government has so far failed to bring under control.
Independent councillor Urusla Gavan described the scale of evictions across the county as “an appalling indictment of a housing system that continues to fail the workers and families who need it most”.
A total of 269 notices to quit were served on tenants in Limerick in the final quarter of 2025, according to RTB figures, an increase of 41 per cent on the same period in 2024. Limerick saw a total of 934 notices across last year.
“Behind each of these 934 notices is a worker or family facing the prospect of losing their home, in many cases through no fault of their own, and at a time when finding alternative accommodation in Limerick is close to impossible,” Cllr Gavan told the Limerick Post.
“Workers in Limerick — many of them on modest incomes in retail, hospitality, healthcare, and public services – are being pushed out of their homes and out of their communities, while the Government continues to treat housing as a market problem rather than a human one,” she added.
Coupled with this crisis is a deeper underlying problem in the Irish construction sector, Cllr Gavan said, which has seen construction fallen at its fastest pace since the end of 2022. According to an AIB survey released in Oct 2025, the downturn in the construction sector gathered pace in the three months to September.
Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan warned that hundreds of Limerick renters now face higher rents or homelessness following the surge in eviction notices issued at the end of 2025.
“These renters will now have to find alternative rental accommodation under the Government’s new controversial market rent reset rule,” Deputy Quinlivan commented.
“This means they will face even higher rip-off rents than before. In many cases, the renters will not be able to afford the new rents and will be at risk of homelessness.”
Decputy Quinlivan criticised Minister for Housing James Browne for “ramming” his new rent bill through the Oireachtas.
“We warned that it would expose tens of thousands of renters to even higher rip-off rents and lead to increased levels of homelessness,” Deputy Quinlivan said.
“The latest RTB report confirms this risk. Renters are now in an even more vulnerable position than they were before the Government’s controversial rent legislation was passed into law.”
The RTB report confirmed that both new and existing rents continued to rise in the year to September 2025. Rents for existing tenancies in Limerick increased by five per cent while new tenancies rose by 10.6 per cent – all before the new rent setting rules kicked in.
“Government policy is making private renting less secure and more expensive. It is driving more adults and children into homelessness. Instead of pushing up rents and homelessness, Government should be cutting rents and banning no-fault evictions alongside increased and accelerated delivery of social, affordable, and private-for-purchase homes,” Deputy Quinlivan said.
“While the Minister for Housing James Browne was courting investment funds in Cannes, inviting them to Ireland to push up rents and development costs in Ireland, thousands of tenants were receiving the devastating news that they are to be evicted.”