Scary stuff.

But while cafe and pub owners might be creaming the top off our coffees, the true culprits are surely the landlords and property developers who are charging the horrific rents that give the proprieters an excuse to charge Milan prices for Ballina coffee.

On a more personal level two such ruthless types recently hoiked up the rent of some young people I know in Dublin citing "market rate".

Nothing, nothing makes my blood boil more than people milking the system to line their pockets.

Honestly, I could just find out where these people live and mark the outside of their houses GREEDY B*****D LANDLORDS.

I had one a few years ago who tried to raise my already astronomical Dublin 2 rent by IR�300 overnight just because he had found some rich sap who was willing to pay more than we had to live in his chi-chi building. How are they getting away with it? By the way, as a landlord myself I am truly disgusted when I hear of people being ousted out of their homes by rising rents. I am as greedy and acquisitive as the next person but I have always thought there was something particularly revolting about trying to milk money out of people for the roof over their head. A landlord is already in a position of privilege. Most of us have other jobs and those who aren't mortified to claim 'landlord' as their profession are surely beneath contempt.

We are a growing band . . . we amateur investors who were lucky enough to manage to hang on to our early-90s section-23 'aportments' . . . and are keeping them for prosperity and to house our own children. Knowing that they will never be able to get on the property ladder any other way it is a smart thing to do, but we are not in that position because we are smart. Only lucky enough to have bought in the right place at the right time.

In my years as a landlord of a shoe-box apartment in the city centre I have learned that happy tenants paying a fair (which is generally below that fuzzy term 'market value') rent don't wreck your property or ring you to change lightbulbs or come around to your house with a washbag if the shower breaks. Tenants that treat your property with respect and pay their rent on time should be left to relax and make a home for themselves. Not informed at a month's notice that they are going to have to pay an extra 200 a month to finance another apartment in Poland.

Being a landlord is a powerful position that shouldn't be abused. Sadly, at present, there is no enforceable standard beyond the conscience of the individual. What a shame that doesn't seem to be enough.