Dublin City Council has voted by a narrow majority to pass its budget after a protest vote by some parties over rent increases for council homes.
The budget passed by 31 votes to 30 after Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, Social Democrats and a number of Independents voted against it in protest at rent hikes which come into effect next year.
People Before Profit Solidarity group leader Councillor Conor Reddy proposed an amendment to the budget which would introduce an almost 15% increase in commercial rates instead of the hiking rents for Council homes.
He said the proposal would include a rebate system which would see 97.5% of businesses better or no worse off than under the budget proposals and would be similar to schemes he said exist in Dún Laoghaire and Limerick.
However, the amendment was defeated after a heated debate about the rent rises dominated the special budget meeting.
A protest was held at Dublin City Hall this evening against the council's plan to increase rents for council homes.
Speaking before the vote the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Fine Gael Councillor Ray McAdam said the rent rise was designed to make the system fairer while generating money needed to repair the councils ageing housing stock.
"Because the regulations haven't changed since 1996, we have seen a scenario where those were on better incomes have actually seen a rent reduction, and what we're trying to do is to balance things out fairly," he said.
However, at the protest outside Sinn Féin Councillor Kourtney Kenny, who lives in a flat complex in the south of the city, said the move would punish those with the least means.
"I have tenants who have three or four older children squeezed into a box bedroom, and they're all in good jobs so that's where it's going to hit them. Those people are saving and trying to get mortgages in order to get out of this situation," she said.
Gail Cullen Doyle of Oliver Bond Street flats say the decision will impact on families "It's going to be atrocious, like people will probably have to try get rid of their kids but there's nowhere for them to go"
Pauline McAdam of the Bridgefoot Street Residents Association said people in her community were "up in arms" about the decision.
"I'm very concerned not only for myself but for people that have their young families, how it's going to affect them with the cost of living."
During the meeting, Dublin City Council said last year it borrowed €138 million for housing maintenance and that the cost of serving that loan for that was around €12 million.
The Social Democrats group leader Cat O'Driscoll said her part was voting against the budget because Dublin City Council was not a good landlord and was letting its tenants down.
She pointed to alternative funding methods such as €10 million in unpaid derelict site levies, and a tourist tax which she said councillors have not been given an opportunity to introduce
Sinn Féin's Daithí Doolan said his party was opposing the budget because if the increase in rent of property taxes, saying the Council could not be "demanding more money" off families with grown up working children.
Councillor Pat Dunne of the Independent group said that around 40,000 households that are local authority or HAP tenants would be impacted by the rent rises who he said are among "the poorest people in the city".
However, the Green Party group leader Janet Horner accused those objecting to the rent increases of making a cheap political stunt for likes on Instagram.
"It is outrageous, it is insulting and its a cheap manipulative play on peoples lives in in order to gain a few likes on your Instagram....you are selling lies and snake oil," she said.
Her party colleague Michael Pigeon said: "There's a clear direct line between the low rents we charge and the low crappy levels of maintenance we provide."
Fianna Fáil's group leader Daryl Barron accused opponents of the budget of sitting on the fence.
"They want to sit on the fence and grandstand all the time. Sitting on the fence, you get nothing done, just waffle," he said.
While Labour's group leader Darragh Moriarty said it was "sick" to try and bring down the whole budget and play politics when people he knows in his constituency are living "in some of the worst living conditions in the State."
