Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I know exactly what you are about and I know what your movement is about. I am not sure it exists for benign reasons. I have to put that on the record because there is one series after another. There was good, constructive engagement on this, yet, as ever, the Deputy's party seeks to gain partisan political advantage over everybody else on the issue and to name-call everybody else who does not go along with its agenda.

I largely agree with Deputy Duncan Smith's point. In our view, institutional investors buying existing supply and buying up entire estates is not acceptable. It runs counter to Government policy, which is to give priority to first-time buyers and make houses affordable for them. We will examine this. I spoke to the Ministers for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and Housing, Local Government and Heritage about the very specific development over the weekend.

At the moment, institutional investors and REITs account for approximately 5% of residential tenancies and approximately 1% of the housing stock in its entirety. The original intention of previous Governments was to bring in investment to facilitate high-density build-to-rent developments in Dublin in particular and some of the larger cities, and not in any shape or form the residential developments of the type that was the focus of the purchase at the weekend.

Deputy Smith might remind me of his latter point.

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