TDs have called on county and city councils to release full data on the composition of the social housing waiting lists, after data released by Dublin City Council showed that 42% of their list were not Irish, while almost 9% were Somalian.
One TD said that it was likely that the Dublin City Council data was “replicated across every local authority to some degree” – saying that “all anyone has to do is open their eyes and they will see the radical demographic shift that is underway”.
The data has been widely discussed on social media, with many commentators claiming that the council data is being “ignored” by much of the media. Of 15,005 households waiting on social housing, 8,706 or 58% are Irish – while 6,299 or 42% are non-Irish.
Somali households alone account for 1,320 applicants or 8.8% of the entire list. Romanian households account for 599 of those on the list or 4% of the total.
The figures were released to Councillor Gavin Pepper by Dublin City Council, with the Independent councillor describing the situation as a “dramatic change”, and calling for Irish people to be prioritised in housing.
The role of Approved Housing Bodies – independent but taxpayer-funded bodies that have increasingly taken over the delivery of housing of local authorities – also came under scrutiny as the data released by the Council showed that AHBs provided almost 63% of all accepted offers in 2025.
59% of accepted offers for non-Irish households went through AHBs.
In addition, the data showed that the AHBs provided a higher proportion of housing offers for Afghans, Ethiopians, Sudanese, Iraqis, and others. Research by Matt Treacy for Gript showed a surge in Somalian arrivals into the Irish asylum system in the past 5 years – and that one of the largest AHBs, the De Paul organisation, assisted 3,929 persons to move from IPAS accommodation into social housing in 2025, which meant that 70% of those they assisted with housing were people who came here claiming asylum.
TRANSPARENCY NEEDED
Now, Independent TDS are saying it is “long past time for country councils all over the country to be upfront and transparent and let the public know exactly what is happening with housing and immigration, even as the country continues to grapple with a housing crisis which seems to have no end.”
That’s the view of Tipperary TD, Mattie McGrath who said that given the huge demand for housing and the crisis the shortage was causing, especially in regard to young Irish people emigrating, every council should be wholly transparent in relation to housing lists and housing offers.
“Of course this data should be released by nationality,” he said. “We are acting as if we are a banana republic, building for the world to come here while our own are leaving for other shores, and then refusing to reveal the facts to the Irish people.”
He said that, locally, people “are saying to me that they want to be told, but the County Councils have not released the information. Local councillors aren’t getting the information, but people are saying to me for years that they can see that Irish people are not being prioritised,” he said.
“The data must be published – people have a right to know what’s going on,” he said. “The current way of doing things, and keeping data secret, is only leading to people feeling ignored and angry,” the Independent TD told Gript.
“We need to step back and reflect on the whole immigration system and what’s happening and we need to prioritise our own people – that’s always been my position, and I’ve been attacked in the Dáil for that,” he said.
He said that the surge in immigration wasn’t just putting pressure on housing but on healthcare, education and other services too, and that a “real and honest debate” was “long overdue”.
Offaly TD, Carol Nolan said that data which should be publicly available was often “buried” and treated as a “state secret”.
Also calling for local authorities to be “fully transparent”, she told Gript that she has “spent years obtaining data at the granular level across a range of issues that ministers and departments would have preferred to remain buried or unknown to the public.”
“This has been particularly true on immigration related issues and the impact immigration has had across the entire sweep of service provision, including housing,” she said.
“Data on housing supply and allocation by ethnicity or status should not be treated as a state secret. The public have a right to know the full facts about where a very limited housing stock is going. They are the ones footing the bill for the construction costs. As such, they have a legitimate right to clear and substantive information on this issue.”
And the Offaly Independent TD said that the figures released by Dublin City Council were likely replicated across local authorities to some degree.
“There is little reason to believe the DCC figures obtained by Cllr Pepper are not replicated across every local authority to some degree. All anyone has to do is open their eyes and they will see the radical demographic shift that is underway. Unfortunately for government it is now way past the point of being explained away as some kind of statistical anomaly reserved to densely populated urban areas,” she said.
CLLR PEPPER: OPEN DISCUSSSION NEEDED
Meanwhile, Cllr Gavin Pepper said that the figures he released regarding the Dublin City housing list “have gone absolutely viral” and accused the mainstream media of being “more interested in wall-to-wall coverage surrounding Donald Trump than asking serious questions about the housing crisis affecting thousands of people across Dublin.
“For years, politicians on the left have dismissed concerns that population growth and migration are putting additional pressure on housing and social housing. The figures I published deserve to be discussed openly — not shouted down, dismissed or ignored because people are uncomfortable with the subject,” he said.
“Government policy has failed far too many people, and Ministers must be held accountable for the consequences,” he said. “And to the left-wing politicians who continue to dismiss anyone who raises the connection between migration, population growth and housing demand:
people are no longer afraid to ask these questions. You can disagree with them. You can challenge the figures. But you cannot simply pretend the pressure does not exist.”
“People who grew up here, worked here, raised their families here and paid taxes here should never feel that their own Government has left them behind. Yet that is exactly how many people now feel. They are being hammered by the cost of living. They cannot afford a mortgage. They cannot afford rent. And many remain stuck on housing lists or living in their childhood bedrooms well into adulthood.”
“People deserve homes. People deserve transparency. And people deserve the truth,” he said.