The economic crisis is contributing to a major rise in threatened evictions, according to the tenants' rights group Threshold.
The organisation says 10 of its clients a week were illegally evicted or threatened with eviction last year.
An illegal eviction is defined as a tenant being physically removed or locked out of their accommodation by a landlord.
In total, it says it recorded a total of 141 completed illegal evictions and 533 threatened illegal evictions over the course of 2007. Interim figures show these numbers are continuing to increase this year.
Threshold's chairperson Aideen Hayden said the rise in illegal evictions is a symptom of how economic difficulties are impacting on the rented sector.
"There is now a serious affordability crisis in the rented sector for people on low incomes," she said.
"Over the course of 2007, we saw landlords under pressure to meet mortgage payments seeking rent increases or higher-paying tenants. At the same time, tenants on low incomes struggled because of reduced eemployment opportunities, rising living costs and increased competition for affordable rented accommodation."
She said the most basic bed-sit in Dublin now costs around €600 a month, while rents in other cities remain high.
"Rents of this scale are not affordable to someone on a low income. Many tenants receive no help with their housing costs: rent relief is minimal and rent supplement is only available to those working less than 30 hours a week or unemployed," she said.
"Unless immediate steps are taken to extend help to those working on low incomes, rent arrears will rise, illegal evictions will increase, and more people will be threatened with homelessness."
Threshold is calling for immediate steps to alleviate affordability in the private rented sector. These include extending rent supplement to workers on low incomes who need help with their housing costs and introducing affordable home purchase plans for those on low incomes.
It says measures such as the Rental Accommodation Scheme – where local authorities form contracts with private owners for rented properties at a fixed price – should also be extended to cover those working people on low incomes.
