Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Those are the two main categories; I think we can all agree on that. The data for 2022, which is the latest we have as the new data for last year will be published in March, shows that institutional investors in 2022 bought 5,887 homes. That figure includes apartments but let us look at houses. There were 2,053 houses but for the same year, in terms of the bulk purchases where stamp duty applied, the figure was 3,095 homes. If the Minister limits the discussion to those funds that paid the stamp duty, which makes up the 1,205 figure with which we are familiar, he is excluding the vast majority of purchases that are happening. There were 2,053 purchases by institutional investors in 2022 alone. Only a small number of them fell into the category of stamp duty. I assume the main reason that is the case is that stamp duty only applies to bulk purchases of ten or more units. Does the Minister acknowledge that the scale of this is much bigger than he has presented in terms of funds that are buying but subject to stamp duty? The vast majority of funds that are buying are not subject to stamp duty and, therefore, there is a requirement to look at the ten-unit figure as it probably needs to be reviewed significantly as well.