A prominent Estate Agent says the pace of rent hikes hasn't slowed in Clare.
The latest quarterly index from the Residential Tenancies Board, shows that rents were up by 8.6 per cent over the past year.
Typical rents paid in Clare have risen by 30 euro per month or by 5.7% over the past year.
Growth is stronger than this in many areas, however rises of 9.5% in Killaloe and 8.4% in Ennis suggest strong demand in these parts of the county.
Rents have also risen by 6.5% in Kilrush and 5.3% in Newmarket on Fergus, with a marginal rise in Shannon.
Diarmuid McMahon of Sherry Fitzgerald in Ennis says the figures highlight that the cost of renting is still rising and he doesn't see an end to that any time soon.
Nationally, rents are growing bu the rate of growth has slowed down to 0.5 per cent inthe first quarter of the year. However, in Dublin prices are higher than the peak of the Celtic Tiger boom.
In the Dáil today, Sinn Féin's Mary Lou Mc Donald argued that rent rises is down to previus Government's failure to provide adequate social and affordable housing.
In response, Minister Richard Bruton agreed that increased supply is the solution to bringing down soaring rent prices.
Minister Bruton believes this will be dealt with in the Government's housing plan.
