Rising rents leave many struggling to afford housing in Ireland

Crisis is decades in the making, experts say, with lack of social housing the biggest cause

Before sunrise each day, Ms Aoife Diver, a teacher in Dublin, gets into her car and drives for up to 90 minutes from her uncle's house to the opposite side of the Irish capital.

After school, it is back in the car for the reverse commute. On a recent evening, Ms Diver, 25, sat in stop-and-go traffic, the red of the brake lights in front glowing through the windscreen, as dusk turned to darkness.

It was not always like this. She used to share a house with five friends close to the school where she works in South Dublin. But when her rent and bills reached almost half of her monthly salary in 2023, she knew she had to move back in with family.

"There's very little housing available, and what is available is way out of my reach," she said. "Eventually, I probably will have to move somewhere else because I'm never going to be able to afford a house or an apartment on my own up in Dublin."

The skyrocketing cost of private rentals has left many people struggling to afford housing in Dublin and other Irish cities, pushing some to move abroad and others to commute long distances. The crunch has left teachers and social workers priced out of the communities they serve, professional couples unable to buy homes, and people on lower incomes fearing homelessness.

The recent xenophobic riots in Dublin capitalised on the grievances of people struggling to cover their housing costs and exposed to the world the deep fractures that the crisis has created. But the issue is decades in the making, experts say, and has become the driving force in Irish politics.