Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is relevant to this discussion, and that prompted me to think about it. I have concerns about real estate investment trusts similar to the ones expressed about this. I will return to that on Report Stage. I worry that we are going down that road. While they are at the bottom and it might be the real price, the people who have money are buying up at the bottom of the market and controlling the market. The REITs may contribute to this. I do not know the figures for the take-up of REITs. Another feature in Dublin and elsewhere is rents going through the roof. This is causing real problems and leading directly to homelessness. How are we going to deal with that?

It would be the greatest irony in the world if, after an enormous boom and bust which crashed the economy, we end up back in the same situation we were in before it, where the same sorts of people control the housing and rental market, and if we in any way incentivise the same stuff to happen again. This is not a comprehensive answer to it but one thing that would help control and regulate it a little would be if we increased the direct provision of social housing to keep prices from inflating out of all control. I worry about any property-based tax incentives, that we could make all the same mistakes again.