Galway City Council has introduced a new rent scheme for social housing.
It's the first new scheme in six years - and will affect 2,700 tenancies.
The City Council says the annual cost of maintaining social housing has skyrocketed from €6m in 2019, to €16m today.
And even more staggering, the cost of repairs, refurbishment and retrofit when re-letting a home ballooned from around €8 thousand to €41 thousand.
But the local authority points out income from social housing rent has remained relatively static, with no changes to the rent scheme since 2019.
Under the new scheme, weekly rent will be calculated as 20 percent of assessable income, and previous discounts will no longer be available.
A lower rate will apply for pensioners and there'll also be a hardship clause.
The changes will apply to new tenants from October, and existing tenants from January next year - and the City Council will begin an information campaign in the coming weeks.
