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# CATU Demands Wicklow Council Drop Rent Hikes
- URL: https://aontachtmedia.ie/catu-demands-wicklow-council-drop-rent-hikes/
- Published: 2026-09-25T14:44:51.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-25T14:44:51.000Z
- Description: Community Action Tenants Union (CATU) Wicklow calls on the Council to drop the sweeping rent increases for local authority tenants, Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) tenants and many Approved Housing Body (AHB) tenants.
- Author: Editor
- Tags: News

Community Action Tenants Union (CATU) calls on the Council to drop the sweeping rent increases for local authority tenants, Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) tenants and many Approved Housing Body (AHB) tenants and asks anyone who is impacted to join the union to fight these hikes. CATU members will also join the protest outside Council Buildings on Monday 28 September at 9.30AM.

CATU members went door knocking in Hillview estate on Monday and will continue to go and meet tenants over the coming days and weeks. CATU spoke to council tenants who are reporting rent hikes of 30% or more, which you wouldn’t even see in a private tenancy, and with less than a month’s notice.

AHB and HAP tenants are also impacted. CATU members spoke to HAP tenants reporting an increase in their monthly rent from EUR 1600 to 2000.

Martina Wynne, a CATU member in Hillview estate, says: “the Council has been sitting on these rent reviews for a year, and has probably waited so long because the rent hikes went down so poorly in Dublin, where tenants are still successfully protesting against rent increases.”

“In Hillview, these excessive rent hikes hit particularly hard because of the conditions tenants live in. We’re over a year on since RTE Prime Time reported on the mould, damp and rodent issues affecting council houses here. Since then, no progress has been made. The Council now says it’s with the Department for Housing to agree funding, but how many more years will we wait? We need to fight back.”

![](https://aontachtmedia.ie/content/images/2026/09/data-src-image-eeb6a903-2c8e-4f76-9e0b-85c7cd8fd78b.jpeg)

CATU demands:

1\. Drop the rent hikes from the Wicklow County Council Budget.

2\. If the executive refuses to remove or amend the increases CATU is calling on councillors to oppose any budget that includes rent increases.

3\. Central government must properly fund local authorities so they can deliver planned and urgent maintenance at the level tenants require and deserve. This can be done through the introduction of a tourist tax, and the collection and ringfencing of vacant and derelict sites levies.

Show your support and join our campaign at [https://forms.gle/n6mBszwcogn7qMkx6](https://forms.gle/n6mBszwcogn7qMkx6?ref=aontachtmedia.ie)

Join CATU at[ catuireland.org/join](http://catuireland.org/join?ref=aontachtmedia.ie)