Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Some 75% of social housing tenancies are now being provided through private landlords. That is absolutely outrageous. The HAP is being used as a long-term answer to housing need rather than a short-term measure.

I will finish on this note, as I notice the time passing. Thanks to the Labour Party, €390,000 was spent on HAP for 500 households in 2014 but by last year, €276.6 million was spent on HAP for more than 40,000 households. That is the turnaround that developed in that period of time. We need to push these housing initiatives onward. The one point we must drive home is that vulture funds should not be allowed to come into the housing market in this country and buy up homes that people cannot afford.

See this speech in context