Back in October 2013, we held a discussion about housing in the capital. After the boom and the bust, we thought back then that it was as bad as it could get and the struggle to find an affordable house to rent or buy seemed harder than ever.
Fastforward three years and the situation now is worse than ever before. Last week, figures from the Residential Tenancies Board showed that the cost of renting a home in the capital is now at an all-time high and that the average monthly cost of renting in Dublin in June 2016 was €113 higher than a year ago. Rents are also increasing outside Dublin so there’s no escape. Add in record numbers of homeless families and rough sleepers and you’ve a crisis which doesn’t appear to be getting any better, no matter what the government promise or plan. 
This Banter discussion will focus on the situation which exists in the city right now regarding renting a home, the possible solutions which could be introduced, the perpetual reluctance by the relevant authorities to do anything about this, the unwillingness to tackle the areas of social housing and student housing and how the current intransigence could play out.
The panel: Eithne Shortall (The Sunday Times), Sive Bresnihan (Dublin Tenants Association), Dr Lorcan Sirr (School of Real Estate and Construction Economics at the Dublin Institute of Technology) and Mandy Meredith (Associate Director, Sherry FitzGerald Lettings)
The small print: Banter on Generation Rent will take place at Wigwam (Middle Abbey St., Dublin 1) on Wednesday October 26. Doors open at 6pm and the discussion gets underway at 6.30pm sharp. Limited tickets can be reserved here.