Taoiseach was wrong to dismiss comparisons with famine-era evictions. Here’s why |
Ireland is currently experiencing a crisis in the rental market with eviction figures not seen on this island since the mid-19th century. In addition, the most recent Daft.ie rental report shows rents have risen and that housing availability remains low, adding to the pressures felt by renter households.
The total number of notices-of-termination received by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) was 20,033 in 2025, a 21 per cent increase from 2024. While the number of termination notices had actually fallen in the last quarter of 2025, this appears to have been a stay of execution. The first quarter of 2026 witnessed a rapid increase in eviction rates, up 36 per cent from the previous quarter and 50 per cent higher than the numbers seen in the first quarter of 2025.
The immediate culprit for the rise in termination notices was the anticipation of new legislation coming into force for new tenancies in March 2026. The new regulations, while well intentioned, had inadvertently caused eviction notices to spike. The main stated reason for notices of termination was landlords intending to sell their property, which meant they were effectively exiting the rental market. This is clear in RTB data, where the number of landlords intending to sell their property rose from 3,226 in the final quarter of 2025 to 4,259 in the first quarter of 2026.
Looking solely at the figures provided by the RTB, this level of ejectment notices is comparable to that seen in Ireland in the mid-19th century.
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