Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----that are capable of providing the investment and credit that we will need to build more homes.

I will turn to the Deputy's point on mica, which I want to discuss. If I decide to meet those who have been affected by this awful plight, it will not be because of the political points that the Deputy is making at this meeting. It will not be because of the cheap juxtaposition that he is making between what I may do when I am travelling or not, whichever the case may be. Those families are facing stress, anxiety and worry. I hope that, if they are tuning in to see the Deputy make that point, they will allow me to say to them that I will not respond to those kinds of political points where the Deputy is trying to compare my meeting businesses who may be looking to build homes with the plight of those who have homes that are falling down. If I decide to meet them, and I am aware of the requests, I will do it because I recognise their anguish and anxiety.

I have been reluctant to do it to this point for a simple reason. As Minister for Finance, I am pretty much involved in every Government decision that involves the expenditure of Government money that may confer a responsibility on us in future. I always have groups that want to meet me that are affected by the decisions I make. I have to respect that those groups have other Ministers that deal with them first. If I accept an approach that means I will be meeting all who are directly affected by decisions in which I am involved, it will inevitably mean that the role of other Ministers is undermined. This is the simple reason. It is not because I am diminishing or devaluing the experience that they are going through. It is because I respect the fact that they have engaged considerably with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, I respect the work that he does and I respect the fact that he is the lead Minister in this regard. I am working with him closely on it.

Regarding the Deputy's point on taxation, I reiterate that, when it comes to the role of IREFs, they paid just over €86 million in tax in our jurisdiction in 2019. Excuse me - it was €72 million. It is fair enough to get into a debate on whether that was enough tax and whether they should be paying more, but to indicate that they are not paying any tax at all belies the fact that they have been. Where the tax is paid is where the income is returned.

Deputy Doherty also made a point about the difference between forward purchase and forward funding. Of course I know the difference, but I contend that, when it comes to forward purchase, the role of pension funds, for example, in giving certainty that an apartment complex is going to go ahead through the purchasing decision it makes enables those homes to be built.

What Sinn Féin currently alleging and what it alleges day after day in accusations it makes about REITs is that building fewer homes will help in fixing our housing challenge and I reject that entirely.

On the final point the Deputy made on Northern Ireland-----