Rising rents are so bad that Irish 'living wage' has increased

It's only getting more expensive to live in Ireland.

A new report by the Living Wage Technical Group estimates that the living wage in Ireland has gone up by 20c per hour since last year. The report puts the new living wage at €11.90 an hour.

The figure now exceeds the Irish minimum wage €9.55 by €2.45 per hour.

The group attributed the increase to the continuing housing crisis and the increasing rents associated with it. Perhaps most startlingly, though costs had fallen in the sectors of food, public transport, health insurance and clothes, all of these improvements were offset by the astronomical rate of rising rents.

"In Dublin, weekly housing costs for a living wage worker increased by €21.55 while they increased by €8.34 per week in other cities across the state. In towns and in rural Ireland the increase in weekly housing costs was €20.04 and €4.64 respectively."

Rents in Dublin are now almost €380 a month higher than the previous peak at the height of the Celtic Tiger.

Calculated by taking into account the costs occurred by the average Irish person, the living wage is a wage which makes possible a minimum acceptable standard of living.

Some companies in Ireland, such as IKEA, have begun to pay their employees the living wage as opposed to the national minimum wage.