Bid by Dublin councils to offer housing

All four Dublin authorities said yesterday they were urgently seeking to strike contracts with private landlords across the city to provide social accommodation, in a new sign of the housing emergency in the region.

The shortage of housing has driven up prices for home buyers and led to huge rises in private rents across the city and squeezed out the supply of social or affordable housing.

Dublin City says it alone has 21,000 people on its social housing waiting lists.