{"id":673262,"date":"2026-09-05T02:49:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T02:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/673262\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T02:49:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T02:49:16","slug":"archbishop-of-dublin-criticises-exploitative-landlords-and-denial-of-right-to-housing-in-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/673262\/","title":{"rendered":"Archbishop of Dublin criticises \u2018exploitative\u2019 landlords and denial of right to housing in Ireland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Landlords<\/a> who \u201cexploit the desperate by packing them into disgraceful living conditions\u201d and make them \u201cpay dearly\u201d for the privilege have been criticised by the Catholic<\/a> Archbishop of Dublin.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Lourdes, France, on Friday, Dermot Farrell said the housing crisis<\/a>, particularly in Dublin<\/a>, had been \u201cnormalised to the point where we are no longer exercised about it\u201d. <\/p>\n

He questioned whether \u201cvested interests\u201d were being sufficiently challenged in the face of the \u201cgross denial\u201d of people\u2019s right to housing. <\/p>\n

In his homily at the grotto, which was attended by a group of Dublin pilgrims, the archbishop urged people to \u201cbreak free of the paralysing grip of the status quo\u201d and for the \u201ccomfortable\u201d to reconsider their attitudes to property rights and values.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it not extraordinary that almost a whole generation of young people have all but given up the hope of having a home of their own?\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cLiving with parents long after the time when people would expect to live independently seems often to be the only alternative to emigration. And those who do find their own place often experience unrelenting financial pressure in paying their rent or mortgage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Archbishop Farrell said hidden homelessness had become \u201cubiquitous\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow visible are the young adults who live with relations, or the increasing numbers of families with children who rely on emergency accommodation?\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Sharp rise in rents charged to new tenants as reforms took effect, RTB reportsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He acknowledged there had been \u201csubstantial public funds invested\u201d in alleviating the housing crisis and that increasing housing supply \u201ccannot be achieved overnight\u201d. However, he questioned whether the crisis was an overriding concern of society.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we see vested interests being challenged? Are established ways of doing things being set aside? Are property rights, and other rights, being reconsidered in the face of such gross denial of people\u2019s basic right to housing?\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what about the exploitation of those who are vulnerable through their precarious housing situation? It is not a law of nature that requires landlords to extract the highest possible rent from their tenants.\u201d <\/p>\n

The archbishop said it \u201cis not a technical inevitability of housing management, that those who control property exploit the desperate by packing them into disgraceful living conditions, overcrowded, ignoring basic standards, and which have the renter pay dearly for this \u2018privilege\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we cease to be shocked; if we dismiss our anger; if we continue to look the other way then this injustice and the suffering it causes will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The finger of blame, he said, should be pointed \u201cnot only at the Government, not only at international investors, not only at planners or developers, it points also at ourselves\u201d.<\/p>\n

He asked if those who own their own homes might \u201csecretly be hoping\u201d the crisis continues so property values remain high. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we enjoy a pleasant environment with many amenities, does that increase our silent sympathy for those who submit planning objections?\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to election time, do we support those we think will allocate resources that benefit us, rather than to those whose needs, including housing, are the most urgent?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Landlords who \u201cexploit the desperate by packing them into disgraceful living conditions\u201d and make them \u201cpay dearly\u201d for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,2512,52,18,13,14,6,24081,8752,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,4097,7,8],"class_list":["post-673262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-catholic-church","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-homeless-crisis","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-renting","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117216160468837056","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}