The country's capital city has been named on a list of ten major metropolitan areas where the gap between rich and poor is extreme. 

After the cycle of boom and bust hit Ireland a few years ago, things seem to be turning around again, at least when it comes to property prices as two different studies from Daft recently found that rent was on the rise, in particular in the capital, and that house prices were beginning to reach pre-crash levels again. 

Those figures have been backed up by a piece by Salon, which ranks Ireland's capital as one of the top cities where the gap between the rich and the poor is most stark. Using data from Knight Frank on global property markets, they calculated that Dublin was fourth on the list, sitting just behind New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

Aaron Cantú of Alternet, who penned the article, attributes the gap to the increase in private capital investment from the super-wealthy going in to property developments, and notes that urban planners in every city on the list are "bending over backwards" to attract that money to their city rather than to any other destination. There is also a correlation that can be noted in the figures between "global cities where housing markets are booming [and] a concurrent rise or entrenchment of homelessness."

Speaking about Dublin, the article argues that the capital saw one of the world's highest property price increases in 2013, and that there is a new property bubble forming once again, despite it happening before in the very recent past.

Cantú also notes that, in line with the general trend, Dublin is seeing a huge increase in homelessness and in 2013 recorded that the number of people sleeping on the streets is at its highest level now since the city started surveying. 

Worryingly, the piece ends with a warning that, as a result of austerity, many of the social programs that would help the most vulnerable in our society have been drastically cut, and should the bubble burst again, it is those people who will be worst hit. 

For the full list and more info on the worrying situation in Dublin, you can read the Salon article over here. 

Via Salon & Orla Tinsley