South Dublin County Council has overwhelmingly passed a ‘Section 140’ motion, instructing the Chief Executive of the council to suspend rent hikes which were due to be rolled out from July. The new rent scheme would have seen a 25% increase in the base rent, with hikes of 53% and 41.5% for some lone parents and Old Age Pensioners respectively.
A Special Meeting of the Council today ended in a 15 to 1 vote in favour of the motion proposed by PBP Cllr. Jess Spear to suspend the changes to the Differential Rens Scheme “until such time as the executive concludes a consultation… and not before the approval of the annual budget for 2027.”Setting of the Differential Rent Scheme is currently an ‘executive function’, however the rarely-used Section 140 of the Local Government Act allows for Councillors to “require the manager to carry out any executive function as may be specified by them”.
“Section 140 motions are very rare and only a handful have ever been passed in the State.
People Before Profit Cllr. Jess Spear commented:
“After a major people power campaign, South Dublin County Council this afternoon passed a Section 140 motion to stop Council management’s plans to impose major rent hikes on 20,000 families.
“Council management had attempted to stop the meeting and only relented when I informed them that I intended to go to the High Court to seek a judicial review if the meeting was not convened.
“We were left with no choice but to take this action as Council management pressed ahead with plans to increase rents by 25% for many, with some facing rent hikes of over 50%.
“Section 140 motions are very rare and only a handful have ever been passed in the State.
“The law is very clear on this - the Chief Executive has to follow council policy, and he has to abide by Section 140 motions. Civil servants, no matter how senior, are not a law onto themselves. The Chief Executive had previously said he would refuse to implement this motion - but now that it has been so overwhelmingly and legally passed, he needs to reconsider. Ploughing ahead with a rent hike in violation of the Local Government Act would be reckless, the rent hikes themselves would be of dubious legality and such a decision would expose the Council to legal challenge.
“Rather than fighting the Councillors and the tenants on this, he should pause the new rent scheme and carry out the required consultation, as requested in February and enforced in today's vote. Tenants have serious concerns about the rent hikes, and the lack of housing maintenance, they deserve to have their voices heard. The reality is the Council already takes in millions more in rents than it spends from its funds on housing maintenance - that’s why councillors said any rent review should be based on fairness, not revenue-raising.”
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy was in the public gallery, along with around 30 tenants, for the meeting. Speaking after the meeting he said:
“This afternoon’s vote in SDCC is a major blow to Fianna Fáil’s and Fine Gael’s plans to hike Council rents and undermine the differential rent system. The vote for the Section 140 motion will inspire campaigners and Councillors elsewhere to challenge Council rent increases across the state.
"Ploughing ahead with a rent hike in violation of the Local Government Act would be reckless, the rent hikes themselves would be of dubious legality and such a decision would expose the Council to legal challenge."
“If the Chief Executive ignores this legally-binding motion, that is a serious breach of local democracy that must be challenged. Section 140 exists for a reason - as a democratic check on the power of the Executive. The Chief Executive may disagree with the policy of the council, but he can’t break it. If he thinks there’s a legal case against the motion, he is free to go to court and argue that. What he cannot do is set himself up as judge, jury and executioner. Chief Executives are not "a sort of shadow court of judicial review" as the Supreme Court said in 2010.”
Notes
15 Councillors voted in favour of the Section 140 motion and 1 voted against
Councillors in favour were from People Before Profit, Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats and five independent councillors.
The Labour Party mayor voted against.
Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, other Labour and some independent councillors did not attend the meeting.