Catholics in Ireland on the decrease

The number of Catholics living in Ireland is decreasing, according to the latest Census figures.

More than 3.7 million Catholics made up just over 78.3 per cent of the population in April 2016, compared to 84.2 per cent in 2011 – a drop of 132,220. Meanwhile the number of people to declare no religion, including atheists/agnostics, increased by more than 70 per cent over the same five-year period. HOUSEHOLDS ON low incomes are being left particularly exposed to rental increases as housing costs eat up a growing proportion of their money, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

It said “substantial” cuts to housing benefit in recent years have led to rental payments now using up an average of 28 per cent of the non-housing benefit income of low-income private renters.

This is up from 21 per cent in the mid-1990s.

Those on low incomes were defined as being in the bottom 40 per cent of the income distribution in their area.

The IFS said that across Britain, the proportion of people living in private rented accommodation has more than doubled in recent decades, from eight per cent in the mid-1990s to 19 per cent in the mid-2010s, while among 25-to-34-year-olds this proportion has trebled from 12 per cent to 37 per cent. Rise in rents hits low-income households