Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ba chóir go mbeadh gach duine ábalta úinéireacht a bheith aige nó aici ar a theach nó a teach cónaithe agus ní mór dúinn an deis sin a thabhairt do dhaoine. Is muidne an Rialtas atá i bhfabhar úinéireacht ar thithe cónaithe agus creidim gur maith an rud é go mbeadh úinéireacht ag duine ar a mhian nó a mian féin agus ar a theach nó a teach cónaithe féin. I am somebody who strongly believes in home ownership. This is a Government that believes in home ownership. We think it is a good thing that people should be able to own their own home, should be able to acquire private property, that they should have an asset they can borrow against, extend if their family grows and something they can pass on to their children when they themselves pass on. Given his party's policies I am not sure Deputy Doherty believes that but we will leave it for another day. At the moment in Ireland, somewhere between 65% and 70% of people own their own home. We in Government want that to be a reality for people who are in their 20s and 30s now, so they have the same opportunity to own their own home as their parents did. That is why we have brought in things like the help-to-buy grant, giving people tax back to help them raise a deposit, it is why we have brought in the rebuilding Ireland home loan, to help people who could not get a mortgage from the banks, it is why we are investing in infrastructure to free up land for housing development and it is why we have established the Land Development Agency.

What happened in Maynooth and in Hollystown in my constituency is not consistent with that policy. It is not consistent with a Government policy that promotes supply and home ownership. We will act on it, and as I speak the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, are developing proposals for a solution. It must be a solution that resolves this problem but also one which does not have unintended consequences. We all know that when we pass a law or adopt a policy, there is always the law of unintended consequences and we may do something in good faith to solve a problem but actually create another one. That is why the Ministers need a little bit of time - and only a little bit - to come up with a workable solution.

Investment funds generally have a role to play. There are housing developments in this city, mainly apartment blocks, mainly high-density developments, which would not have been built if not for finance from investment funds. Such developments were not able to get funding from the banks. If they had not been built we would have fewer apartments, higher rents, higher prices and perhaps even more people in homelessness. We, therefore, need to get the balance right. People need places to rent, and well-managed developments to rent from. As things stand at the moment, less than 1% of the housing stock in Ireland is owned by investment funds and that is much lower than would be the case in most other developed countries. However, their correct role is to finance the construction of developments not to swoop in and buy housing estates or developments that are already substantially complete. That is what we need to change and what the Government intends to change with the actions it will take in the coming weeks.

On the tax position, what Deputy Doherty said was misleading. He listed a whole bunch of taxes these investment funds did not pay and not the ones they do. He tried to create the false impression no tax is paid by investment funds - that is not the case. They pay tax on the dividend income and that is how these investments are structured. Furthermore, there have already been changes. There were changes in the budget last year, changes in the Finance Bill adopted and there may well be further changes required.

See this speech in context